No update yet on defenseman Jan Hejda, who sustained a right knee injury in the first period Thursday in Edmonton. He was to fly back to Denver on Friday to be examined by team physician Dr. Andrew Parker. It could be another day before we find out how serious it is, but it sure looked bad.
Now the Avalanche has to rebound in Calgary after getting drilled 8-2 by the Oilers. Jean-Sebastien Giguere will start in goal, and he'd better get a lot more defensive support than Semyon Varlamov did Thursday, no easy task without Hejda.
Defenseman Cory Sarich will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the second time this season. It will be his first game in Calgary since being acquired from the Flames in June with right wing Alex Tanguay in exchange for forward David Jones and defenseman Shane O'Brien.
Sarich, 35, has been paired with Andre Benoit for most of the season and been more effective than many of us expected. He has one goal, four assists, a plus-4 rating and 24 penalty minutes in 24 games while averaging 17:31 in ice time. He played in 28 games last season with two assists, a minus-8 rating and 16 penalty minutes.
Sarich had an assist and played 18:12 against the Flames on Nov. 8 in the Avalanche's 4-2 win at the Pepsi Center.
"It'll be a little bit different (playing in Calgary), but it'll be such a quick trip that there'll be hardly a chance to say hello to the few people I know around there," Sarich said. "Breeze in, play a hockey game, and breeze out. It'll be get ready to play hockey and say a quick 'hi' after and then we'll be on our way. Sometimes it's easier that way; there's less distractions and it's easier to concentrate on the hockey. I'm going to have a few family and friends that are coming to watch, so it'll be nice to have some support."
The Avalanche has bounced back before, winning five of six games after losing three in a row in mid-November.
"There's going to be bumps in the road, and those are tests of character," Sarich said. "I think we stood up well against the first one. Our next hurdle will be this portion of the schedule where things get pretty heavy with the travel and good opponents."
The Avalanche closes out the three-game trip Sunday in Vancouver.
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Among other things, the Avalanche needs to get the power play back in gear, going 0-for-15 in the past five games. The Flames have killed 20 of 21 penalties in their past six games.
Slump city: Jamie McGinn has one goal and two assists in the past 18 games; Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly have no goals and one assist in five games; Tyson Barrie has gone six games without a point; Benoit has no points in five games and Paul Stastny no points in four games.
Flames goalie Karri Ramo will start after stopping a total of 50 of 52 shots in consecutive wins against Los Angeles and Phoenix. The Flames have won five of the past seven games against the Avalanche at the Saddledome.