The Avalanche players will scatter today, the beginning of the all-star break, and don’t practice again until Monday afternoon. Right wing Milan Hejduk is the team’s only representative in Sunday’s game at Montreal.
Also, defenseman Kyle Cumiskey — a healthy scratch against the Kings — will be sent down to Lake Erie so he can play in the American Hockey League All-Star Game on Monday night in Worcester, Mass.
Colorado coach Tony Granato is heading to Bozeman, Mont., during the break to watch his oldest son, Mike, 19, play in the junior ranks for the Bozeman Icedogs of the Northern Pacific Hockey League.
“I’ve never been there before,” Granato said with a smile after the morning skate.
On the verge.
As expected, defenseman Adam Foote (triceps) and winger Ian Laperriere (back) missed the Kings game, but they participated in the morning skate.
Granato said he was hoping both would be ready to play Tuesday against San Jose, and he added that winger David Jones (back) also is getting close to returning.
When the Sharks meet the Avalanche in the fourth game of Colorado’s eight-game homestand, San Jose likely will have former Avs winger Claude Lemieux in the lineup. Lemieux, 43, played the first game in his NHL comeback after a 5 1/2-year absence, against Vancouver on Tuesday.
Lemieux played seven minutes on the Sharks’ fourth line, had three shots on goal and didn’t have a point.
Granato said he watched the game on television and called Lemieux’s work “very impressive. That was exciting to see.”
Only one.
The only Avalanche homestand in Colorado franchise history longer than this current one was a nine-game stand in the 2001-02 season.
That was even more broken up, though, because it was sandwiched around the nearly two-week break for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
