Tyler Arnason does not sound like a man expecting any tearful reunions or long, nostalgic reminiscing with former Chicago Blackhawks teammates when he plays against his old team for the first time tonight.
“It’s another two points that our team is going to need,” said Avalanche center Arnason, who spent three-plus seasons with Chicago. “I’ve just got to treat it like every other game, I guess.”
Still, Arnason, who scored his first goal as an Av on Saturday night, acknowledged it will be a “little strange” to face his old team. Arnason’s stay with the Blackhawks ended at the NHL trade deadline last season when he was traded to Ottawa.
Arnason went 19 games without a goal for the Senators and was scoreless in his first three games with the Avalanche before scoring on Edmonton Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson in Colorado’s 4-3 loss.
Arnason beat Roloson with a laser of a wrist shot off the rush, a goal that gave the Avs a brief, 2-1 lead. Arnason had five shots on net through the first two periods, easily his best game with the team so far.
“(Arnason) played well, and we’ll want to see that going forward,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said.
Said Arnason: “When you don’t score, it feels like you’re not really doing your job. So hopefully I can use this as a stepping-off point for some better games in the future.”
Offense, but no goals
The Avs have put at least 31 shots on goal in each of their first four games, including 42 in Saturday’s loss. But they have only 10 goals to show for it, and first-line veterans such as Andrew Brunette and Ian Laperriere are still looking for their first goals despite having 19 shots between them.
“We just have to keep putting it on net,” Laperriere said. “We’re all squeezing our sticks a little bit more right now. But if we keep putting 42 shots on net every night, we’ve got more chances of winning than losing.”
Bad start for Skrastins
Avs defenseman Karlis Skrastins, who signed a multiyear contract to stay with the team this summer, is off to a poor start.
He is a team-worst minus-5 entering tonight and is coming off a game in which he took a costly delay-of-game penalty by backhanding a puck into the stands. The Oilers used the subsequent power play to score a tying goal and seize momentum.
Skrastins did put three shots on goal, though, after getting only one in his previous three games.
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
