Sure, Avalanche goaltender Peter Budaj has been inconsistent in the first month of the season.
But hasn’t everybody?
That seems to be the Avalanche company viewpoint as the team embarks on the three-game road trip to Western Canada that begins tonight against the Vancouver Canucks in General Motors Place.
“We’ve been up and down,” the Slovak goalie said after the Avalanche’s practice Tuesday. “We lose some games, we win some games, then we lose again. You just have to try to stay the course and do the little things right, be prepared in practice 100 percent, work hard, don’t give up.
“You don’t base your season on the first 10 games. You can have a great 10 games and a bad 10 games, so you have to see how it’s going to finish at the end of the season because that’s the main point — to get in the playoffs and go as far as you can.”
Budaj is coming off a 26-save shutout of Nashville on Saturday night, nudging his numbers closer to respectable. He now has a 4-7 record, a 3.10 goals-against average and an .885 save percentage.
“The team’s playing really good in front of me, which helps,” Budaj said. “There haven’t been odd-man rushes the last game, so I feel pretty good.”
Illustrating the up-and-down nature of both his and the team’s play in front of him, Budaj has been the NHL’s No. 2 star during one week, and much derided in others.
“Sometimes you’re not playing well, sometimes the bounces go the other way,” Budaj said. “You just have to stay the course, keep working hard, and trust the guys who are in front of you.”
Avalanche coach Tony Granato said Budaj “handled the first three games exceptionally well, when we dropped the first few. I think he responded really well. With his work ethic, his demeanor, how he handled it was very professional. He got back on track.
“He’s been inconsistent a little bit, similar to our team. If you pretty much look at our whole season so far, we can say that about a lot of things on our team. ”
Said Avalanche defenseman Scott Hannan: “We have trust in him. We have to keep playing well in front of him. In some of those games, I’m sure he might want a few goals back, but so would the ‘D’ and so would the team. It’s a breakdown from the offensive zone back that causes scoring opportunities.
“If you play the right way from the start, you’re going to limit the scoring opportunities, limit good opportunities. He’s going to be there for us. We know he’s going to be there for us.”
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
Colorado at Vancouver
8 p.m. tonight, ALT, KCKK 1510 AM/KRCN 1060 AM
Spotlight on Roberto Luongo: “Looie,” the Canucks goalie, takes a shutout streak of 201 minutes, eight seconds into tonight’s game. The NHL modern-day record was set by Brian Boucher for Phoenix in 2003-04 (332:01). Last season, Luongo became the third goalie in NHL history to record at least 35 wins in three straight seasons.
Avalanche: Joe Sakic is out with a back problem, so Tyler Arnason will return to the lineup today against the Canucks. “We need to get Tyler Arnason playing the way we think he can help us,” coach Tony Granato said. “If we didn’t think he could help us, he wouldn’t be in our organization. We think he can play a big part of it. Obviously now with Joe out of the lineup, he’ll get his chance to be back in, and I hope he makes the most of it.” . . . Winger Cody McCormick, who missed Saturday’s game while attending his grandmother’s funeral, was back at practice Tuesday and made the trip.
Canucks: The Canucks are in first place in the Northwest Division. Vancouver has been healthy this season, unlike last year. “I think obviously when we have a healthy blue line, it’s one of the top in the league so far,” goalie Roberto Luongo told reporters Monday. “This year, so far, we’ve been able to do that. A huge difference, not only in the defensive zone but guys able to move the puck out of the zone quicker and start up a rush or something like that, and makes a difference also on the offensive side.”
Adrian Dater and Terry Frei, The Denver Post
