Matt Duchene isn't interested in helping the Avalanche play the role of spoiler in their final three games of the season, starting Tuesday against Nashville at the Pepsi Center.
The Predators (47-22-10) are in the hunt for first place in the Central Division, which the Avalanche won last season, and also have a chance to finish first in the Western Conference. They trail St. Louis by one point in the division and they're three points behind Anaheim for the conference lead with three games remaining.
Here are the game notes.
"It's not where we want to be," Duchene said after the morning skate. "It almost takes more character to play these games than the ones that mean something. We have fans coming tonight that are paying good money to watch us play. They're loyal and we want to do them proud, so we're playing for them.
"It's tough. We play to win the Stanley Cup; that's the reason we play the game. When you have zero chance of that, it sucks. But we have to take our medicine and be pros and play the best we can. It's about our fans and our own pride in the logo here. I think we're looking at it as a start to next season and we're trying to go into the summer on a good note."
Remember how poorly the Avalanche played in the preseason? They struggled to score goals and won just once, in the exhibition finale against Los Angeles in a shootout.
Well, despite claims by players at the time that those results didn't mean much, the poor play continued in the season opener, a 5-0 blowout in Minnesota that was much worse than the score. The Avalanche won once in the first seven games, nine in the first 28 and never caught up.
"I think what the problem was in preseason was our compete level wasn't there and it carried on to the start of the season," said Duchene, who has 21 goals and 32 assists. "How we were losing, had our compete level been there, we would have been fine. Our compete level wasn't there in the preseason or in the start of the season, and that's why it was concerning.
"We were playing big games at the end of last year and we let ourselves get let down a little bit by that in preseason rather than understanding that's part of the process."
Duchene said the biggest thing he learned this non-playoff season is how important it will be to have a good start in the fall.
"And how important the compete level is in the preseason," he said. "We learned a lot this season and we're going to be better for it going forward."
*****
Forward Daniel Briere, who is in the final year of his contract, still hasn't resumed skating since sustaining a foot injury March 23 against Calgary and will miss his eighth game in a row.
Coach Patrick Roy isn't optimistic that Briere will play in either of the two remaining games, Thursday against Winnipeg and Saturday against Chicago.
"Right now it doesn't look good," Roy said. "Obviously I would like to see him play a game (before) the end."
Briere has eight goals and four assists in 55 games.
*****
The Predators come in with a three-game losing streak (0-1-2) and they've gone 6-9-3 since defeating the Avalanche 5-2 on Feb. 24. They lost six consecutive games in regulation after that and seemed to get back on track with a 6-2-1 run that preceded this losing streak.
"We're looking more at the process and how we play, what we can do to clean things up and be better," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. "We've got an opponent tonight, this team is capable of hurting you if you take your foot off the gas pedal a little bit and they step on theirs, it's enough to swing a game." Here's the Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Alex Tanguay John Mitchell - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Dennis Everberg Jordan Caron - Joey Hishon - Freddie Hamilton
DEFENSE Jan Hejda - Zach Redmond Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie Nick Holden - Brad Stuart
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Reto Berra