After arriving in Denver and skating lightly Wednesday and Thursday, Jose Theodore seemed on track to step into the Avalanche crease before the end of the regular season.
That still seems to be the goal, anyway.
“It feels good to be back out on the ice skating a little bit, and being able to move around,” Theodore said at Family Sports Center on Thursday morning before traveling with his new teammates to Calgary. “I’m looking forward to skating a little bit longer (today) and increasing it.”
The 29-year-old goalie acquired from the Montreal Canadiens on March 8 is recovering from a fractured right heel bone suffered in a fall outside his Montreal-area home during the Olympic break in February. Including tonight’s showdown for the Northwest Division lead against the Flames, the Avalanche has nine games remaining, and the oft-asked – and as yet unanswered – question is whether Theodore will play in any of them.
“Right now, it’s hard to say the timetable,” Theodore said. “We’re meeting with the trainers and the doctors and they’re taking good care of me. It’s just (a matter of) being on the ice with as little pain as possible and pushing harder. Each time I’m out there, I’m pushing a little bit harder each day. … It’s probably going to be a couple of days before I put the pads on and have some more movement.”
Theodore, whose injury occurred six weeks ago to the day on Thursday, says that “it’s feeling as it’s supposed to.”
The original prognosis was that Theodore would miss six to eight weeks, and eight weeks would take him to April 13 – when the Avalanche plays again at Calgary in the first game of a season-closing three-game trip.
“Right now everything’s on pace,” he said. “The main thing is to make sure that when I’m back I’m able to feel pretty good and be 100 percent. It’s going to be easier to say when I have a couple of full practices with the team and have the full gear on.”
Because he was watching Cristobal Huet hold down the No. 1 job in Montreal before his accident, Theodore hasn’t played since Jan. 31. He said that neither he nor anyone else had considered him shutting it down for the season and turning his energies toward getting ready for the 2006-07 season.
“When I fractured my heel, I looked at the schedule and knew I probably would be back before the end of the season,” Theodore said, adding that nothing had happened to change that plan.
In addition to his recovery, though, the secondary issue is whether the Avalanche would be comfortable going with a goalie in crucial games down the stretch and in the playoffs who has been out so long, and wasn’t playing well before his injury. Colorado has used Peter Budaj in every game since the deal sent David Aebischer to Montreal in exchange for Theodore.
Avs coach Joel Quenneville said he would “feel comfortable either way.” He said, “The fact that he did get on the ice is a good sign, and hopefully sometime next week we’ll have a clear indication of when he’ll be able to play. We’ll see, but there’s some progress there.”
Quenneville didn’t believe there was much purpose in speculating about the Avalanche options until more is known about Theodore’s recovery.
“At that time when we visit it, we’ll have a clear idea of whether he’s 100 percent, how he’s practicing, how he feels, is he comfortable, is he confident,” he said. “But let’s hope we have a tough decision to make.”
Footnote
The Avalanche has announced plans to make April its Community Relations Month, and will unveil a Legacy Project designed to highlight and raise funds for the team’s Community Fund. The team’s fund has contributed more than $10 million to community causes since 1995.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
