Vancouver, British Columbia – Joel Quenneville played 803 games as a player in the NHL, and Sunday night he coached his 750th NHL game. Only four other men in league history have done that.
The Avalanche coach joined Brian Sutter, Jacques Lemaire, Bob Pulford and Milt Schmidt as the only ones to coach and play 750 games each. Quenneville had a 388-268-93 (.580) record entering the game against Vancouver.
“That’s a great accomplishment,” Avs captain Joe Sakic said. “(That there) have only been that many guys who have done it, it just shows how hard that is.”
Wolski benched
For the second time this season, Avalanche rookie Wojtek Wolski was a healthy scratch Sunday.
Wolski was unimpressive Friday against Edmonton, playing just 10:03 despite starting the game on the top line with Sakic and Andrew Brunette. Wolski has one goal in his past 15 games.
Marek Svatos played right wing on the top line against the Canucks, with Brunette switching from right to left wing.
Scott Parker was added to the Avs’ lineup, on the fourth line. Defenseman Karlis Skrastins (sprained knee) might return to the lineup Tuesday night.
Footnotes
The game featured two of the NHL’s top three ironmen. Vancouver’s Brendan Morrison played in his 505th consecutive game, leading all active players. Brunette played in his 364th straight. Skrastins recently saw his streak of 495 straight come to an end. … The Avalanche will take today off. … Sakic’s two goals gave him 608 for his career, tying Dino Ciccarelli for 15th on the all-time NHL goal-scoring list. Sakic has 1,579 points, tying Ray Bourque for ninth on the league’s all-time list. … Ian Laperriere’s first-period fight with Jeff Cowan was his 16th major penalty of the season, tied for second in the league.
