He’s all grown up, that Patrick Roy. The Avalanche coach these days is more like a philosophical ice sage than the fiery goaltender who would tear down another player with his stare, then chop his skates off with a diatribe.
Less than 24 hours after the Avalanche got run out of Minnesota in a runaway, season-opening 5-0 loss to the Wild, Roy was drawing back for reasoned perspective.
“We said all year long last year, we want to be even-keeled,” the Avs’ second-year coach said. “We’re certainly not going to panic over it. But we’re going to talk about it. That’s totally different. There are things we can’t let go, and we’ll address those things.”
The Avs didn’t practice Friday but did meet as a team to prepare for Saturday night’s home opener against the Wild.
“It’s one game. Let’s use it,” Roy said. “You always want to use a loss to make you a better team. And (Thursday’s loss), hopefully, that makes us a better team.”
Colorado’s players, though, were perhaps taking direction from Roy the goalie after their performance.
“We just weren’t ready for last night,” Matt Duchene said Friday after a gym workout. “We didn’t know what was going to hit us. We played terrible.”
Duchene, who managed just one shot in nearly 20 minutes on the ice, added: “That was a clinic for them last night. They absolutely dominated us. They probably deserved to win 8-0.”
That the Avs were so thoroughly trounced by the same team that bounced them from the playoffs last season only added to the gut punch.
“Certainly it was disappointing,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “We wanted to play with a chip on our shoulder; we wanted to send a message, and it really backfired on us.”
Roy, while reeling in the fire, did make changes. The Avs on Saturday will start veteran Jarome Iginla opposite Ryan O’Reilly on a top line centered by Duchene, who moved up from a winger’s role on the second line Thursday.
That leaves a second line of Nathan MacKinnon centering Alex Tanguay and Landeskog, who moved out of the center spot on the top line.
On defense, Ryan Wilson replaces Nate Guenin in a pairing with Jan Hejda.
“Everyone has to take responsibility for their own game and not pass the problem off to their teammates,” Duchene said. “A lot of us didn’t want the puck (Thursday). There were a lot of times we passed the problem to somebody else.”
Roy, though, remains focused on the long view.
“It might take a bit of time. As much as I’d like to see it be perfect, it might take a bit of time,” the coach said. “It’s a young group. I’m going to be patient with this group. But we’re certainly going to address those situations.”
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or
MINNESOTA AT COLORADO 7 p.m., Saturday, ALT; 950 AM
Spotlight on Zach Parise: Minnesota’s top-line left wing was awesome in the season opener against Colorado. His second-period goal gave the Wild a 3-0 lead, and he added two assists, all part of a four-goal burst that completely buried the Avs. But Parise, a 10-year NHL veteran, knows well Colorado’s motivation to erase the loss. “If the roles were reversed and we got pounded 5-0, I guarantee we’d come out playing the same team with a little more bite,” Parise told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on Friday. “We have to expect that from them.”
NOTEBOOK
Avalanche: The line pairings coach Patrick Roy will use Saturday reflect what the Avs looked like in the third period Thursday, after they shuffled to ward off an even bigger blowout. Roy had tinkered with the lines earlier in the week, moving Ryan O’Reilly to center and Matt Duchene to wing. But they’re back to their former spots now. “I don’t think it’s a chemistry issue,” Roy said, pointing instead to the Avs’ effort. “As much as we didn’t compete along the wall, we have the same problem in front of the net.”
Wild: Minnesota’s top defensive tandem, Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin, combined to go plus-6 on Thursday. And Suter scored a goal and added an assist. Between Parise and Suter, perhaps its two best players, the Wild got five total points.
Footnotes: Roy defended Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov, who was removed after two periods Thursday. “I’m sorry to be laughing,” Roy said. “But I’m not laughing. It’s too bad for him because we were so bad in front of him. He was the reason it was only 5-0 after two, to be honest.” Roy, as a goalie, once gave up five goals in just 22 minutes in a season opener — against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1995, the same season he was later traded from the Montreal Canadiens to Colorado.
Nick Groke, The Denver Post
