Tonight against the San Jose Sharks at the Pepsi Center, the slumping Avalanche will use the same lineup as against Calgary Friday, with the exception of winger Matt Hendricks returning after a two-game absence and Darcy Tucker joining the ranks of the healthy scratches.
Hendricks hasn’t played since suffering a head injury last Sunday at San Jose.
In addition to Tucker, the other healthy scratches are scheduled to be forwards Marek Svatos, Chris Durno, and David Koci, plus defensemen Brett Clark and Ruslan Salei.
“It’s the lineup that tonight I feel gives us the best chance to win,” Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said this morning. “I like Matt Hendricks’ energy on that fourth line, and I think that with Stephane Yelle back, a guy who’s a key member of our penalty killing unit and at taking faceoffs, I just feel it’s the right decision.”
Minus Tucker, the scheduled scratches took the morning skate, along with David Jones, still making progress in his recovery from knee surgery, plus goalie Peter Budaj.
Otherwise, the Avalanche players reported to the Pepsi Center only for a 10:15 team meeting. At the time, Colorado – 1-6-1 in its last eight games — still was in eighth place in the Western Conference, although tied in points with Calgary.
The Flames lost 4-1 to the Blackhawks at Chicago this afternoon, remaining at 89 points and officially in ninth place on the basis of the tiebreaker. Including tonight, Colorado has five games remaining and Calgary three. So what it means going into tonight’s game is that regardless of what the Flames do the rest of the way, the Avalanche would clinch a playoff spot with six points in the last five games — or correspondingly fewer if the Flames do anything but win out.
“We’re trying to make sure that we stay positive, stay upbeat,” Sacco said. “We still feel good about where we’re at. We have five games left, they have four games left, so we have one game in hand and we own the tiebreaker right now. I think if you look at it that way, there’s reason to remain upbeat and stay positive.”
Said veteran winger Milan Hejduk: “It’s a big game coming up tonight, and you don’t want to be too negative. We still believe we have it here, and if we take care of business, we’ll get in the playoffs. We look ahead. We don’t look back.”
(David Jones says he is making progress, but still doesn’t know if he will be able to play in the final week of the regular season or in the playoffs: Terry Frei’s blog)
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Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com