NEW YORK — Matt Duchene bristled a bit at the question about his goal-scoring output through the first five games of the Avalanche’s season. On a night his point streak stopped at four in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders, Duchene was asked if he’s at all frustrated with just one goal so far.
“It’s five games. I’ve been more the setup guy with the guys I’ve been playing with,” Duchene said. “I’m playing with more trigger guys, and I’m more of a playmaker anyway. I’m a guy who scores in bunches, and once I get a few, they’re going to come. I’m not too worried about it right now. I didn’t contribute offensively (Saturday), but I felt like I played one of my strongest games this year. Some nights it happens, and some nights it just doesn’t.”
Still, one of Duchene’s stated objectives before the season was to shoot the puck more than he did as a rookie. After the first five games, he stands credited with nine shots on goal and just one in the last two games. The nine shots are three more than he had through the first five games of last season, however. Overall, Duchene had 180 shots in 81 games in 2009-10.
The speedy 19-year-old center has five points overall entering tonight’s finale of Colorado’s five-game road trip at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers. He’s ahead of last season’s scoring pace, and the Avs have a winning record.
Is Duchene noticing tighter checking schemes against him, though, after leading all NHL rookies in scoring?
“I don’t really pay attention,” he said. “I just worry about what I have to do out there. In this league, players are so good at reading plays, you’re not going to have time and space very often. You just have to work through that.”
Slow start for Hejduk.
Avs veteran forward Milan Hej- duk is off to a bad start. He was a minus-3 in Saturday’s loss, dropping him to minus-6 on the season. He scored a goal in last Monday’s loss at Philadelphia, his only point this season. He has three shots on net the last two games and, like everyone else on the team, has struggled on the power play.
“Our players know they need to be better on the power play,” Avs coach Joe Sacco said. “It’s a critical part of the game.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
Notebook
Avalanche: The Avs took Sunday off. . . . The team is hoping Brandon Yip (groin) will be able to play. He missed Saturday’s game despite skating in the pregame warm-up. . . . The Avs entered Sunday ranked 22nd in the league in power-play percentage (11.1) and 22nd in penalty-killing (77.3).
Rangers: New York lost two key members of its offense to injuries Friday night. Leading scorer Marian Gaborik suffered a separated shoulder and will be out for a few weeks, and former Av Chris Drury broke his left index finger for the second time — but in a different place — since the start of training camp. He could be sidelined six weeks. . . . The Rangers rank 23rd in NHL penalty killing (76.5 percent).
