It should be an eventful Saturday night at the Pepsi Center, where the Avalanche will retire former defenseman Adam Foote's No. 52 jersey before taking on the Montreal Canadiens.
"It means a lot and I'm so happy for him," said Avalanche coach Patrick Roy, who watched as his No. 33 jersey was hoisted to the arena rafters in October 2003. "He's a player I enjoyed seeing playing in front of me. I enjoyed every game. He was a warrior for us. He was playing against the top line every night. He battled, he competed. We had no doubt every night that he would perform at a high level."
My Foote story is on NHL.com:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=689590&navid=nhl:topheads
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Roy, who won two Stanley Cups with the Canadiens, said it will be "special" coaching against his former team for the first time.
"I've been saying to everybody it's just another game, but deep inside I guess it's not," he said. "It's always special playing against a former team. But I have so much respect for them. Things are so much different than when I was traded."
Roy and the Canadiens reconciled five years ago when his jersey was retired at the Bell Centre in Montreal. He departed on bad terms when he was traded to the Avalanche on Dec. 6, 1995.
"I'm so happy to have a good relationship with the Montreal Canadiens," Roy said. "When they retired my jersey, I appreciated that. It was great for me to see my jersey there. I was happy that (Canadiens general manager) Marc Bergevin gave me a call. I respect him a lot the way he handled the situation. Even now I speak to him on the phone here and there but always with a lot of respect."
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This could be a low-scoring game. Jean-Sebastien Giguere will start in goal for the Avalanche, and he owns a 3-0 record with two shutouts, a 0.67 goals-against average and .981 save percentage.
Former Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj will start for the Canadiens. He has a 2-0 record with one shutout, a 0.50 goals-against average and .982 save percentage.
Left wing Cody McLeod will return to the Avalanche lineup after serving a five-game suspension for his hit against Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall on Oct. 17. McLeod will skate on the fourth line with Marc-Andre Cliche and Patrick Bordeleau, and kill penalties.
"He's a guy that played great on PK for us," Roy said. "He brings a lot of energy and he's having a great physicality in his game that we definitely need. It's unfortunate what happened, but he still needs to go out there and give some good body checks. I think the (opposing) defensemen are aware when he's there. He's an important player for us."
Roy said left wing Jamie McGinn, who sustained a knee injury Oct. 25 against Carolina, could play but won't because he hasn't skated "for the last five or six days." Roy said he expects McGinn to play Wednesday against Nashville and will need to wear a brace. "I think he needs a couple days of practice before playing in a game," he said.
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Max Talbot is getting adjusted to life on his new team following Thursday's trade from Philadelphia in exchange for Steve Downie. He logged 17:36 of ice time Friday in the Avalanche's 3-2 overtime win in Dallas. Talbot will remain at right wing on a line with John Mitchell and Nathan MacKinnon, and he'll kill penalties.
"It's nice to be home now with the guys," Talbot said Saturday morning. "They made me feel pretty comfortable pretty fast. It's a great group of guys so it's kind of easy to tag along. After tonight I'll have a couple days to move things personally. It's nice to play games right away. I'll reflect more on things in the next couple days, but it's nice to get right into action."
Talbot was informed of the trade after he practiced with the Flyers and was having lunch with his fiancee, who is due to give birth to their first child in February.
"You come home from practice and have lunch with your pregnant fiancee and you get a phone call and you learn you have to be in the airport in three hours to meet a new team in Dallas," he said.
The Avalanche won't play again after Saturday until Wednesday when Nashville comes to town, but Talbot said he won't be going back to the Philadelphia area to pack up any personal items. Instead, his fiancee will travel to Colorado this week.
"She'll meet me here for a little bit," he said. "We'll wait a couple weeks maybe to move the things, sell the house and this and that. But here we can see the mountains and I called her to say it's beautiful here. You only have good comments about this place from everybody who's played here.
"She's dealing with all the issues, but we'll have help. We have good families. It's finding a new doctor and this and that. It's still stressful. It's the third doctor and our first baby is due in February. But we'll figure it out."