PARAMUS, N.J. — The mood was buoyant among Avalanche players after a rare victory over the Red Wings on Tuesday night, and their record after three games of their season is a winning one.
But resting prominently on the mind of Avs coach Joe Sacco is the alarming state of his special teams. Unless the power play and penalty killing improve, it likely won’t be a winning record for long.
Not only is the power play 1-for-10 through three games after struggling mightily in the preseason, two short-handed goals have been allowed in the past two contests, along with another goal that developed at the end of another Avs power play. The penalty-killing success rate is 75 percent.
“The guys are trying,” Sacco said. “We’ll continue to work on it, and we will be better. But we’ve got to be better.”
Among Sacco’s top special-teams concerns: finding the right combination of point men on the power play. So far, several players seem to have been auditioned, with little success. John-Michael Liles, Milan Hejduk, Matt Duchene, Chris Stewart, Kyle Quincey and Kyle Cumiskey all have spent time at the point.
The lack of a booming slap shot by any of them means the Avs usually try a fine-tuned passing strategy on the power play. But that is a tough way to score against today’s bigger goalies and defenses that collapse down deep and take away low-post passing lanes.
Still, Sacco saw some improvement against Detroit.
“I thought we worked hard when we were in the offensive zone,” he said. “I thought we tried to simplify, but at the end of the day we can’t be giving up (short-handed goals).”
The continued absence of Peter Mueller (concussion) has taken away Colorado’s most potent slap shot. The Avs have considerable room under the salary cap, with the lowest payroll in the NHL. At Tuesday’s game, scouts from 16 teams were on hand, so a trade is possible.
Friday’s opponents, the New Jersey Devils, were widely expected to make some kind of trade to rectify their serious cap problems, but in the last two weeks the team has placed high-priced players Bryce Salvador (concussion) and former Av Brian Rolston (sports hernia) on long-term injury reserve, giving the Devils cap breathing room for now.
For their game Monday against Pittsburgh, the Devils dressed only 15 skaters, largely because of cap issues. Against Buffalo on Wednesday, the Devils dressed only 16. The NHL Players’ Association, according to the Bergen (N.J.) Record, will investigate whether the Devils violated the collective bargaining agreement, which says NHL teams must dress at least 18 skaters except in cases of “emergency.”
Because of the injuries to Salvador and Rolston, among others, the Devils have $5.2 million in cap room, The Newark Star-Ledger reported, and will recall players from the minors today.
Footnotes.
The Avs will practice today at the Prudential Center in Newark. . . . Avs center Paul Stastny was one of the few NHL players still using all-wooden sticks, but no more. Stastny has switched to a composite graphite stick.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
