After Paul Stastny suffered a fractured right forearm against Phoenix last week and joined Joe Sakic on the injured list, it would have been understandable if Avalanche coach Tony Granato immediately checked to see if Peter Forsberg had undergone another surgery to implant a bionic ankle and would be ready to return to the NHL in a week.
Instead, Granato faced reality.
He could have given second-year pro T.J. Hensick the first crack at centering the top line between wingers Milan Hejduk and Ryan Smyth.
Or Granato could have taken a look at Wojtek Wolski, returning the enigmatic 22-year-old winger to the position he last played for any significant stretches of time in his major junior career.
Or Granato could have committed to both, making Hensick and Wolski interchangeable as his top two centers.
Rather than doing any of that, the coach is showing considerable faith in a skating enigma — Tyler Arnason.
Granato is giving Arnason, best known for being stamped with the word “potential” for years, yet not living up to it, the first post-Stastny chance to center Smyth and Hejduk.
Given the impermanence of line combinations and the changing- on-the-fly nature of the sport, Granato instantly can switch his strategy and juggle his line combinations for the rest of the season. But at this point, the Colorado coach seems committed to Arnason as the stand-in No. 1 center — and is stubborn about it — as the Avs head into tonight’s home game against Nashville.
“Those guys obviously really played well,” Arnason said of his new linemates after the Avalanche’s 4-3 shootout victory over Detroit on Saturday. “I’ve just got to get used to playing with them, so I thought it went all right.”
Arnason, 29, hasn’t scored a goal since Oct. 30, and his perceived low-key personality and what-me-worry public demeanor add to his reputation problems.
“It’s people’s job to talk about sports, and people love to do it,” Arnason said Sunday. “But it’s my job to play.”
Absolutely, Hensick and Wolski as a 1-2 center punch would be risky and probably would require patience. It’s a tossup sometimes about whether Hensick plays any more attention to the defensive end than does Carmelo Anthony, and Wolski hasn’t played much center since he came to the NHL.
But why not try it?
If this team hangs in playoff contention, plays hard, is entertaining and provides hope for the future down the stretch, Granato will deserve praise . . . and not a pink slip. If he manages to get this team in the postseason while also showing faith in the “kids,” including Hensick and Wolski at center? Give that man an extension.
Arnason has only two goals in this, his seventh NHL season after leaving St. Cloud State. He was born in Oklahoma, where his father, Chuck, a one-time member of the NHL Colorado Rockies, was finishing his pro career, but was raised in Manitoba. He showed promise early in his NHL stay, getting 41 goals in his first two years with Chicago, but he hasn’t done much since — at least not on a sustained basis.
In fact, even Arnason’s flashes of brilliance can be aggravating. That’s because those occasional big Arnason nights make you shake your head and say the talent is there . . . and why can’t he do that every night? This isn’t Ben Guite, the journeyman trying to carve out a living as a lower-echelon Avs center; this is a guy with much more talent who doesn’t seem to use it. And now that Arnason is in the final season of his two-year deal and making $1.7 million in 2008-09, Granato undoubtedly wouldn’t mind if he considers this shot on the top line to be part of a contract drive.
“Arnie’s capable of being a top-line center,” Granato said. He added: “If you look throughout the year, he’s been pretty solid defensively and when you’re playing against the other team’s top lines, which those guys are going to have to do, you’re going to spend a lot of time in that area.”
Granato said that Arnason “can make the simple plays. When you play with Milan and Smittie, that’s what you have to do — get them the puck quick.”
Then Granato got to the punch line.
He’s daring Arnason — implicitly in public and perhaps more directly in private — to step up and prove that the consensus opinion about his game is unfair and off-target.
“I think he sees it as a chance,” Granato said. “Instead of playing in the 10, 12, 14-minute range, it’s a chance to be a 16- to 18- minute guy. That’s a big thing for everybody.”
It’s a big-time challenge for Arnason. The question is: Is he good enough, or does he care enough, to answer it?
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
