Good special teams usually have been a hallmark of Joel Quenneville-coached teams. Mediocre is the word to describe the Avalanche’s power play and penalty killing so far, and the coach isn’t happy about it.
Colorado entered Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings ranked 15th in power-play percentage (16.9) and 21st in penalty killing (82.4).
“We feel we’re better than those numbers are, but there have been a couple of games that have hurt them,” Quenne- ville said. “But special teams decide a lot of games in the league now, and it’s something we talk about a lot.”
The Avs started the season with 15 straight penalty kills and were the last team in the NHL to surrender a power- play goal, but things have worsened. The Avs are just 2-for-33 in power-play opportunities on the road (6.1 percent).
Injury updates
Quenneville said defenseman Jordan Leopold (hernia surgery) is skating and making progress to a season debut, but he did not give a firm date.
Quenneville said veteran forward Pierre Turgeon (shoulder surgery) is at least a week away from returning, but it appears likely he will be back sometime this month.
Who gets benched, or worse, when they return is something Quenneville knows will make for tough decisions.
“We’ll visit with that when the time comes,” he said.
Footnotes
Before the game, the Avs honored World War II veterans Ed Tipper, Bill Brunger, James Blaine and Joe Paine. All four saw two theaters of operation in the war. …
Right wing Cody McCormick, who had been out with a chest injury, made his season debut. McCormick took a penalty early in the first period that led to a Kings power-play goal. … Mark Rycroft, Kurt Sauer and George Parros were healthy scratches for the Avalanche.
