After the Avalanche continued to struggle for much of Thursday night offensively in a 4-2 loss to Columbus, Paul Stastny, who had one of the Colorado goals, said the lack of scoring from forwards shouldn’t be alarming.
The Avalanche had 28 goals in its first seven games but just three in the last three.
“Maybe we were a bit too careful against that team,” Stastny said of the defensive-oriented Blue Jackets. “But the scoring will come.”
Marek Svatos, coming off knee surgery, remained stuck on one goal for the season after playing a little more than 14 minutes against the Blue Jackets.
Charity.
In conjunction with the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation, Kroenke Sports Charities on Thursday presented $40,000 in grants to organizations for disabled athletes before the Avs-Blue Jackets game.
The namesake organization of the famed country singer enlists athletes and coaches to pledge specified amounts of money for various individual and team statistical accomplishments, and the Avalanche has had 100 percent participation for the past two seasons.
The grants were awarded to Colorado Special Hockey, a youth hockey program for disabled children and young adults; the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center, involving disabled people working with horses; and Colorado Wheelchair Sports.
Zero minutes and counting.
When the Avalanche signed veteran defenseman Daniel Tjarnqvist in the offseason, he was considered injury insurance. That has been borne out, because with the Avalanche yet to lose a man-game to injury on the blue line, he was a healthy scratch for the 10th consecutive game Thursday and hasn’t suited up yet this season.
Ben Guite, who generally centers the fourth line when he plays, was a healthy scratch for the fifth time, with Tyler Arnason — who had one point in nine games going into the night — continuing to center the third line.
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
