St. Paul, Minn. – Minnesota’s Pavol Demitra is playing for his third team in three seasons. The other two were St. Louis and Los Angeles, but he nearly was a member of the Avalanche.
Before last season, Demitra was offered a free-agent contract by the Avs, hoping to offset the recent loss of superstar Peter Forsberg. But the Kings topped the salary-cap strapped Avs at the last minute, and Demitra played one season in Los Angeles before being traded to the Wild this summer.
If Demitra had chosen Colorado over Los Angeles, it would have been for one reason – coach Joel Quenneville.
“Joel is like a father to me,” said Demitra, who had two assists in his Wild debut, a 3-2 overtime win over the Avs on Thursday night. “He’s a great guy, and he built me. He gave me a chance to play at St. Louis, and gave me a lot of ice time, and I owe him big time.”
Demitra has been a persistent pain to the Avs since Quenneville has coached Colorado. In 28 career games against the Avs, Demitra has 12 goals and 31 points.
“He had some big games against us last year, and now he’s playing on a line with (Marian) Gaborik. That’s going to be a very tough pairing for teams’ (defensive) pairings to deal with,” Quenneville said.
“Kid Line” to “DU Line”
Quenneville changed his lines slightly after the first, moving rookie Paul Stastny off the “Kid Line” with Wojtek Wolski and Marek Svatos. Stastny had a tough night, finishing minus-1 and no shots on goal.
For most of the third period, Stastny played on a line with Antti Laaksonen and Mark Rycroft – all three played at the University of Denver, though at different times.
“It was a little rough after the first two periods,” Stastny said. “In the third period, I told myself just to work hard out there. We threw it down low, had some good plays. But it’s tough to get a loss at the end.”
Footnote
Avs defender Patrice Brisebois injured his left leg and was limping somewhat after the game.
