It didn’t take long for Shane O’Brien to get into his comfort zone Sunday night.
In his preseason debut, the new Avalanche shutdown defenseman spearheaded a 3-on-5 disadvantage just 1:13 into the game against the Dallas Stars at the Pepsi Center.
O’Brien, a durable 6-foot-3, 230-pound Canadian, was paired with Erik Johnson during the two-man disadvantage and with puck-moving youngster Stefan Elliott at even strength.
O’Brien and Elliott took the opening faceoff, and O’Brien, Johnson and forward TJ Galiardi didn’t give the Stars a sniff around the Jean-Sebastien Giguere-protected net during the 5-on-3.
Soon thereafter, Colorado was playing its best hockey of the preseason and firmly in charge of a game it won 3-0.
“You have to take a lot of pride in killing penalties. It’s not the glamorous job, but if you want to win hockey games, you have to kill penalties, and tonight we did that and it got us going the right way,” O’Brien said.
The Avs, who had the NHL’s worst penalty-killing percentage (.761) last season, were 100 percent (4-of-4) against the Stars. O’Brien played 3:04 on the penalty kill and 19:20 overall in his first game with the Avs since signing as a free agent in July.
He played in 80 regular-season games for Nashville last season and 65 for Vancouver in 2009-10. He and the currently injured Jan Hejda (6-4, 237), also an offseason free-agent signee, are expected to make Colorado much tougher to play against.
Just 28, O’Brien is playing for his fifth NHL team. He broke into the league 2006 with Anaheim, three years after the Ducks drafted him in the eighth round (250th overall), before the draft was trimmed to seven rounds. He has been involved in multiplayer trades three times, going from Anaheim to Tampa Bay in 2007, from the Lightning to Vancouver in 2008, and from the Canucks to Nashville on Oct. 5, 2010.
Denver is the first NHL city in which he chose to live and play hockey.
“It was a good, young team I wanted to play for,” O’Brien said. “A lot of skill up front and with E.J. (Johnson) on defense, (Kyle Quincey) coming back healthy, myself and Jan coming in, plus (goalies) Jiggy and Varly (Semyon Varlamov), I think we have a good recipe for success. It’s exciting.”
O’Brien’s family has some history in Denver. He is the nephew of former NHL defenseman Dennis O’Brien, who played 592 games in the league — including 16 with the Colorado Rockies in 1977-78.
Footnotes. The Avs won their first preseason game behind Ryan O’Reilly’s two goals. Rookie left-wing Gabriel Landeskog made a nice diagonal pass to set up O’Reilly’s first goal, giving the No. 2 overall draft pick in June his first point of the preseason. … The Avs outshot Dallas 31-16 and pinned Dallas with its first loss of the preseason (3-1). … Former Colorado College star and Highlands Ranch-raised goalie Richard Bachman manned the Stars’ net. … Forward Mark Olver and defenseman Kyle Cumiskey are the only healthy players yet to play in a preseason game. Defensemen Hejda (knee) and Ryan Wilson (thumb) also haven’t played. … Forward Brandon Yip, who broke his forearm on Friday, is expected to miss four to six weeks.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
