DETROIT — Avalanche captain Adam Foote logged 17:15 of ice time in his return to the lineup Saturday against Detroit, mostly playing in a pairing with rookie Kevin Shattenkirk.
“I felt better in the second and third,” Foote said after Colorado’s 3-1 loss to the Red Wings. “It took awhile for me to get my legs under me.”
Foote was activated from the injured list Saturday afternoon, returning after a concussion resulted in an eight-game absence.
“I thought as the game went on, he started to get his timing back,” Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said of Foote. “I thought he was getting more involved physically. He’s been out a long time. He hasn’t practiced all that much, but I thought he was fine tonight.”
Colby Cohen, who had to go to the dressing room in the third period against Columbus on Friday because of illness, and David Liffiton were the scratches among the Avalanche defensemen on the trip.
Earlier in the day, the Avalanche said Cohen would be available, but he didn’t take the warm-up and sat out the game.
Hall of Famer drops in.
Former winger Dino Ciccarelli, who played for the Red Wings for four seasons in his 20-year career and made a still-famous comment about shaking hands with the Avalanche’s Claude Lemieux at the end of the 1996 Western Conference finals, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto last week.
Ciccarelli dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff before the game Saturday night, and, yes, you can believe it, he shook hands with Avalanche ceremony participant Paul Stastny. A portion of his Toronto induction speech was played on the scoreboard screens before the game.
