CALGARY, Alberta — Three games into the season, Marek Svatos found himself off the ice — but not because of injury.
Svatos, the Avalanche’s leading goal scorer until suffering a torn ACL last season, was a healthy scratch in Tuesday’s game against Calgary.
Avs coach Tony Granato downplayed the significance of his decision.
“He played only two exhibition games, and the first two games (of the regular season) were very fast-paced games and he’s coming off that injury,” Granato said. “We thought tonight would be a good night to keep him out and get him ready for Thursday.”
Cody McCormick took Svatos’ place in the lineup and played well, assisting on a Cody McLeod goal and fighting Jarome Iginla.
PK prescription.
Avs defenseman Ruslan Salei, on the team’s woeful penalty killing so far: “We’ve got to bear down. We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to get it out every chance we get. You have to come back to the basics. If it’s not working, we’ve got to do something more basic. If we get a chance to clear it, we have to clear it. You’ve got to protect the house. That’s the bottom line.”
Granato said: “We had a couple chances to clear pucks that we didn’t. Anytime you don’t take advantage of the opportunity to do that, it ends up in your net a lot. Two of those goals tonight were like that.”
Tucker bloodied.
Avs veteran Darcy Tucker suffered a bloodied face after taking a puck to the face in the second period. Tucker required stitches but returned later in the period.
Footnotes.
Avs first-line right winger David Jones is off to a slow start, going without a point for the third straight game. He played only 12:17, with no shots and a minus-1. . . . The Avs won 43 percent of the game’s faceoffs (27-for-63).
Adrian Dater, The Denver Post
