The Avalanche has a lot invested in Jose Theodore – including reputations.
He makes $5.5 million this season, and his cap number both this season and next will be $5.33 million.
That’s not a problem if he is the workhorse starter and plays well. It’s a big-time complication, though, if he is watching a majority of the games or – even worse – being given work only because the organization is afraid of publicly admitting the trade that brought him from Montreal to Colorado was a huge mistake.
So when Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville shows, as he did last week in using Peter Budaj for two straight games last week, that he considers the pecking order at the position to be a meritocracy, that at least shows that he isn’t being ordered to play Theodore.
Budaj didn’t seize the job, but at least he had the chance to do so. And he probably will again if Theodore doesn’t become more reliable and consistent.
“There’s no agenda other than we want to give ourselves the best chance to win as a team and to get better as we go through the season as a group,” Quenneville said after practice Friday. “As a coach and as a staff, we’re comfortable that he’s going to play.”
As Quenneville was talking, Theodore was out on the ice, working with goal- tending coach Jeff Hackett, his former teammate at Montreal. Quenneville’s Achilles’ heel in the past as a coach has been his impatience and capriciousness with goal- tenders, and this presents a challenge for both the coach and the goalie: On the one hand, Quenneville can’t give up on trying to massage Theodore and see if he rebounds to his 2002 form; but he also can’t let it go too far.
“We’ve got ‘Hack’ here this week, working with him,” Quenneville said. “Jacques (Cloutier, the Avs’ assistant coach and former NHL goalie who handles the defensemen) is around. I don’t know, as goaltenders you go through stretches where you have to bounce back.”
Sharp Sabre
Former Avalanche winger Chris Drury has been at the heart – in more ways than one – of the Sabres’ fast start, which follows a postseason in which they came within one victory of making the Stanley Cup Finals last spring. On a league conference call, Drury was asked if coming so close provided incentive for trying to get over the hump this season.
“I don’t think anyone really thought we were that close,” said Drury, skating at center with the Sabres. “Maybe on paper, but the fourth game of the conference finals (is) obviously the hardest game to win, and the next four are even harder. We know we have a lot of work to do, and we’re still very, very hungry.”
So far, that’s showing.
The Sabres went into the Saturday night home game against Atlanta with a 10-0 record, which tied the league record for the fastest start – albeit with three of the first four victories coming in shootouts, the tiebreaking system put into effect for the 2005-06 season. And Drury, who in the past has been better known for his postseason clutch work than for his regular-season numbers (not that there’s anything wrong with that), had 10 goals in the first 10 games.
“Our mind-set is not to be satisfied with the previous game, I guess,” Drury said. “The old saying (is), ‘You’re only as good as your last game.’ Our motto is, ‘You’re only as good as your next game.”‘
Jersey boys
The Avalanche on Friday was the latest team to try prototypes of the more form-fitting jerseys, due next season from Reebok, as company representatives make the practice-rink rounds. The jerseys were plain, without logos, numbers or anything else, and they didn’t look significantly different than previous models. So this is no “Spiderman”-style revolution, but more of a tweaking that includes fabric that sheds water.
“It’s a more aerodynamic look,” Milan Hejduk said. “I guess they think it might increase the speed? I didn’t feel much different, though.”
Thrashing
Almost everything former Avalanche coach Bob Hartley has tried this season at Atlanta has worked, with the Thrashers off to a stunning start that has been overlooked because of the Sabres’ streak.
He even took the unusual step of putting his No. 1 goalie, Kari Lehtonen, in for a shootout Thursday night against the Flyers – after giving Lehtonen the rest of the night off as backup Johan Hedberg got a rare start.
“It’s like a baseball manager,” Hartley told reporters after the game. “If you have Mariano Rivera sitting in the bullpen, you use him. He’s the closer.”
This didn’t work. Peter Forsberg, who deigned to participate this time against his former Colorado coach, and Simon Gagne beat Lehtonen in the shootout, and the Flyers got credit for the 3-2 victory in John Stevens’ bow as Philadelphia head coach.
Legal department
* Ever wanted to own a Stanley Cup championship ring?
The Flames’ Darren McCarty, who has declared bankruptcy, is selling the three he won as a member of the Red Wings in a Nov. 5 auction of some of his property in Michigan.
There is no word on whether Claude Lemieux plans to bid.
* The sentencing of James Harney, the New Jersey state trooper who was part of a gambling ring allegedly bankrolled by former Avalanche assistant coach Rick Tocchet, was postponed Friday. His lawyer told The Associated Press the sentencing probably wouldn’t take place until Tocchet is indicted and pleads guilty, or Harney testifies in a trial against Tocchet.
In other words, he’s got to finish singing.
* Ken Hitchcock, fired last Sunday as the Flyers’ coach, has a contract that runs through 2008-09.
The makes him more worthy of admiration than pity.
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
