It’s Jose Theodore’s turn. Finally.
After Theodore’s recovery from minor knee surgery and his rehabilitation start for the Lake Erie Monsters at Cleveland last weekend, the veteran goalie will be in the net for Colorado tonight in St. Louis, where the 2-1-0 Avalanche faces the Blues (2-1-0) at the Scottrade Center.
The move isn’t a surprise, given the Avalanche also plays Saturday night at home against Columbus. The only real suspense was which of the back-to-back games Colorado coach Joel Quenneville would select to give Theodore his first start of the season.
“It could have been the other way around, too,” Quenneville said. “We looked at both sides of it and thought it was better to start him (Friday) night.”
The coach said Theodore is “ready to play. He had a good test last week and he’s proven that he’s stable in his knee and his game is ready to go. He’s practiced real well, and he’s looked sharp.”
After the Avalanche’s Thursday practice, Theodore said: “It’s good to be back in. It was a long rehab, but it’s fun to get the start. I’m anxious to get out there and help the team.”
With Peter Budaj taking over the No. 1 job and getting the bulk of the work down the stretch of the 2006-07 regular season, when Colorado closed with a 15-2-2 rush, Theodore had only three starts in the final six weeks. One was the season-ending makeup game against Calgary on April 8, after the Avalanche had been eliminated from the playoffs. He finished with a 3.26 goals-against average, a 13-15 record and a .891 save percentage, all certainly not what Colorado had in mind in March 2006, when it traded for the 2002 Hart Trophy winner.
In the offseason, the Avalanche decided not to buy out the final year of Theodore’s contract – he is making $6 million, with a cap number of $5.3 million – and committed to keeping him. Given the state of his game and his contract, especially under the salary cap terms of the collective bargaining agreement, which doesn’t allow for teams to agree to pick up parts of salaries to unload players, Theodore at this stage is virtually untradeable.
Theodore is hoping to vindicate that decision in his “contract” year.
“If I play the best I can and I’m happy with the way I’m playing, then everything will fall into place,” he said. He added, “I think every year you approach it the same way, but obviously when it’s the last year of the contract, I think as a player everybody puts that extra pressure on yourself, which is a fun and good pressure, I guess.”
Another factor in the Avalanche’s decision to bring him back this season was the way Theodore handled the demotion and lack of playing time. Despite his reputation for being somewhat temperamental and touchy – certainly not rare qualities among goaltenders – he continued to work hard in practice, from all appearances wasn’t disruptive, and got along with Budaj.
“I think, in a way, with experience and looking back, when you like your team and you like your teammates and you respect your organization, there’s no sense in coming here and not helping the other guy out or not being supportive of your teammates,” Theodore said. “That’s pretty much the way I always approach a game. I expect a lot from myself. I like this team and I like everybody in here. I wanted to show my support, but obviously this is a new season.”
Quenneville said of the Budaj-Theodore relationship: “Everybody wants to play. To say that they’re not competitive in that way is false. But I think there’s a sincere support for one another. I think they want to see each other do well. But at the same time, I’m sure they’d like to play every night. The balance there sometimes could be a little sketchy and not sincere, but being around them and knowing their character, I think they really do hope each other does well and makes it competitive amongst the two of them.”
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
