Brad Richardson had just awakened from his afternoon nap in Lowell, Mass., on Saturday when he got the news – his next game would be for the Avalanche, not the Lowell Lock Monsters.
“I just started cooking my meal, because we were heading off for Portland (Maine) for our game,” Richardson said at the Pepsi Center Sunday morning. “Then I got the call. It was a nice call to get. But actually, I didn’t have that much time to think about it because I had to get my bags packed and get going.”
The 20-year-old center was recalled from the Avs’ American Hockey League affiliate in the wake of Steve Konowalchuk’s season-ending wrist injury. Richardson got nine minutes and four seconds of ice time in his first NHL game, Colorado’s 6-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
Veteran center Pierre Turgeon also is out, but his groin injury isn’t expected to sideline him for more than a week. Still, Konowalchuk’s long-term absence and Turgeon’s short-term unavailability apparently will create opportunities for young centers Cody McCormick – who played his fourth game of the season with Colorado on Sunday – and Richardson to secure spots on the roster as more than temporary fill-ins. Against the Canucks, McCormick and Richardson skated on a fourth line with winger Dan Hinote.
“I really enjoyed myself,” said Richardson, a fifth-round pick in the 2003 draft who played the past four seasons with major junior’s Owen Sound Attack. “There were some butterflies early, but after that, I was OK.”
Richardson was the runner-up to the London Knights’ Corey Perry for the Ontario Hockey League’s most outstanding player award last season, when Richardson had 41 goals and 56 assists for the Attack. When called up, he had three goals and 10 assists in 17 games with Lowell.
Avalanche coach Joel Quenne- ville on Sunday morning said McCormick “has been fine in the three games he’s played in so far. He’s done a nice job in the role he’s been assigned, and Brad getting his first taste of the NHL will give him a good opportunity to do what he’s been doing. I know he’s been playing well (at Lowell) the last few games. … We expect him and Cody to play our team game, to contribute in the way they can, but do that playing the way they play, as opposed to trying to do something else they’re not able to do.”
Konowalchuk’s season-ending wrist surgery – he is scheduled for surgery this week – also rules him out as a possibility for the U.S. Olympic team for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.
“Oh for sure, that’s a disappointment,” Konowalchuk said. “I wasn’t a shoo-in, but I think I was under consideration. I think I was playing as good of hockey as I ever was in my career, and I was definitely pushing for a spot. … It was a huge motivation for me to be able to get on that team and getting involved in the Olympics.”
Because Konowalchuk didn’t play in Europe during the wiped-out 2004-05 season, he will end up playing only 21 games in a two-year span. At age 33, he has one season remaining on his Colorado contract.
“The good thing is I was playing my best hockey,” Konowalchuk said. “I look at it like it almost cancels out the year we didn’t play. I was up to my full potential. I was skating as good as I’ve ever skated, so I know my legs are still there. Now I look at it like I have six months to go here to get well. It would be really tough if I wasn’t playing well, if I had never gotten my legs under me, and never had gotten confident, to go out and miss that amount of time. But I’m going to be confident, and that confidence is going to help me coming back.
“I’ll work hard. I’ll be fine. One thing good is that it’s the wrist and I can do everything I need to do with my legs. That’s the most important thing, if you’re skating well the other things will come. In three or four months, maybe I can get out there and start skating a little bit, without the puck, and keep my legs in shape, and everything will be fine.”
Broadcasting update
After shuffling its on-air lineup on Avalanche radio and television broadcasts last week, Altitude Sports and Entertainment Network hasn’t formally committed to making the arrangement permanent.
At least in the short term, Mike Haynes – the team’s long-time radio voice – will continue to work with analyst Peter McNab on the television broadcasts, and Norm Jones will do the radio play-by-play. Doug McLeod, in his first season as the television play-by-play voice, is the odd man out, at least for now.
