Let the trade rumors start again.
Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said Wednesday that PA Parenteau will be a healthy scratch for the second game in a row Thursday when the Minnesota Wild visits the Pepsi Center for an important Central Division match.
"Unfortunately as a coach sometimes you have tough decisions to make and everybody's playing so well," Roy said after practice. "We're going to go with the same lineup (as in Monday's 4-3 win in Dallas). We're not going to change. Sometimes you have some injuries and it gives opportunities to guys to show something, and they've been doing just that. We're very happy with our lines."
Matt Duchene will continue to center Ryan O'Reilly and Jamie McGinn; Paul Stastny will skate with Gabriel Landeskog and Alex Tanguay; Nathan MacKinnon will center Max Talbot and John Mitchell; and Marc-Andre Cliche will skate with Cody McLeod and Patrick Bordeleau.
"I think guys like McGinn have been scoring almost every game with Dutchie and Ryan," Roy said. "Same thing with Tanguay on Stastny's line. MacKinnon and Mitchell and Talbot are playing well. PA is a good player, he's playing hard for us and I'm sure he's going to help us in the near future."
Parenteau was among a group of eight players still on the ice long after practice ended.
Defenseman Ryan Wilson also will be a scratch for the second game in a row.
Semyon Varlamov will start in goal.
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Interesting that when Roy was specifically asked about Tanguay and Parenteau, he praised Tanguay and didn't say a word about Parenteau, who played in three games after missing 10 with a sprained knee.
Tanguay had an assist Friday in the Avalanche's 3-2 win in Florida after sitting out 36 games with knee and hip injuries. He didn't play Saturday in the 5-2 loss in Tampa and had the decisive goal Monday in Dallas. The Avalanche is 14-1-0 with Tanguay in the lineup.
"I thought Alex played really well in Florida," Roy said. "He had a really good game as well against Dallas. He brings something so important to this team. When he's playing with Paulie and Landy, we're 14-1. That speaks a lot in itself. It's always good to have a guy like Alex. He won a Stanley Cup with us and he brings very good leadership to this team."
As for the 14-1-0 record when Tanguay plays:
"You don't try to make a big thing of it, but it's there," Roy said. "The idea about making a trade this summer, bringing in Tanguay and (Cory) Sarich was in order to bring in guys who have won Stanley Cups and some leadership in this dressing room. It's exactly what they brought to us. With (Jean-Sebastien Giguere) and now Talbot, who have won Cups, I think these guys are helping our team to be better."
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The Wild remains in the race for third place in the division, a spot that guarantees a berth in the playoffs. Minnesota won in Anaheim on Tuesday to close within seven points (71-64) of the Avalanche, but Colorado has played three fewer games.
This will be the fifth and final meeting between the teams this season. The Avalanche went 3-0-1 in the first four games.
The Avalanche, which has played 52 games, is just six points behind first-place St. Louis and second-place Chicago. The Blues have 77 points in 52 games, the Blackhawks 77 points in 55 games.
"Any time you're looking at a divisional game and they're behind you, you want to keep them there," defenseman Erik Johnson said. "The teams that are in your division, sometimes you want help. Fortunately for us, we're in a good position and we don't need too much help around the league. We want to continue to control our own destiny, control our own fate and not worry about what other teams are doing when we're not playing.
"We don't do a whole lot of watching the standings. We just come every day and work and take it day by day. We focus on the task at hand and when that game's over we're looking forward to the next one and figure out what we could have done better in the last one and use that going forward. We're a pretty even-keel group. It's just a day-by-day mentality.
"The division is at stake and you want to set yourself up as best you can going into the playoffs. We want to catch the teams ahead of us. The teams that are behind, we want to keep them there."