With more Avalanche players going to the Olympics than any NHL team, coach Joel Quenneville will keep a close eye on his team’s stamina in the last third of the season.
Colorado will send 11 players to Turin, including stars Joe Sakic and Rob Blake, who play major minutes for the Avs. Quenneville is mindful of 1998, when the Avs might have been hurt by having so many players (nine) play in the Nagano Olympics.
“We’ll gauge how much the guys play,” Quenneville said. “We’ll be aware of that. You’ve got to monitor the situation. You’re playing the games to win. We have five days off in March (14-19), so we’ll be measuring how the guys are going into that time of the year.”
Sakic suffered a knee injury in Nagano, while others such as Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote seemed mentally and physically tired at times down the stretch. The Avs lost in the first round of playoffs to the Oilers.
On Thursday, several Avs were informed they’d made their respective countries’ Olympic teams, including Marek Svatos and Peter Budaj (Slovakia), David Aebischer (Switzerland), Karlis Skrastins (Latvia), Ossi Vaananen and Antti Laaksonen (Finland) and Milan Hejduk (Czech Republic).
Goalie talk
Quenneville reiterated the Avs won’t be keeping three goalies on the roster much longer. Budaj played Thursday against Minnesota. Aebischer and Vitaly Kolesnik also remain on the roster.
“We don’t plan on (three goalies) being a long-term scenario,” Quenneville said. “But they’ve all handled things very professionally.”
Footnotes
Defenseman Kurt Sauer, with the AHL’s Lowell Lock Monsters of late, will rejoin the Avalanche for their game in St. Paul, Minn. … Cody McCormick and Aebischer were healthy scratches for Colorado. … Wild goalie Dwayne Roloson and Avs defenseman Rob Blake were childhood friends in Simcoe, Ontario.
COLORADO AT MINNESOTA
6 p.m. tonight, ALT2, KKFN 950 AM
SPOTLIGHT ON MARIAN GABORIK
The silky smooth Slovak has seen his stock slip some after a tremendous 2002-03 season, one that included a great playoff performance. Injuries and contract problems have dimmed Gaborik’s star, but he remains a top talent with game-breaking abilities.
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
