NEWARK, N.J. — Anybody can make a nice speech and call himself a leader. Real leaders back up their words with action, and Matt Duchene is showing more this season that he is one of the Avalanche’s leaders.
When the Avs needed a top forward to get going, to lead the way out of a slump that was starting to get serious despite the season still being early, Duchene was the guy. Starting with the first period of Thursday’s game at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers, through his against the Devils, Duchene led the way to two desperately needed victories.
It is probably a miscarriage of sports justice that Duchene, in his sixth season with the Avs, doesn’t at least wear an “A” as an alternate captain. But Duchene doesn’t need a letter on his sweater to prove he’s the team’s on-ice leader.
Duchene, only 23 still, is a good talker, a go-to guy for reporters needing a quote. After Tuesday’s dreadful Avs performance in a 6-0 loss to the New York Islanders, Duchene went on a mini-rant about the team’s play to that point. The next game was important for Duchene, because a flat performance might make his words seem empty.
Instead, he led the way with skill, but also hard, grinding play against the Rangers and earned the game’s No. 1 star with a goal and assist.
After scoring the game-winner Saturday, Duchene spoke of the need for the Avs to start getting even hungrier now that a little success is coming their way again.
“We tried to will our way through this. It hasn’t come easy, not for one second,” Duchene said. “Last year, if we played the way we did against the Rangers, we score five or six goals and win easy. This year, it’s just not coming that easy. But these are the types of wins that (help). We’re pushing hard, we’re working hard, and we’re going to get through this because we’re a strong, character team.”
Duchene said it’s been a struggle for this team to find its identity. Maybe it wanted to be too much of a skating, skill team early on instead of having more of a blue collar work ethic. Somewhere in the middle is where he thinks the team is best served.
“I think these last couple of games, we’ve found more of the way we need to play,” he said. “But by no means are we thinking everything is all fine again. We know we still just have to keep our heads down and keep working at it.”
Said Avs coach Patrick Roy: “Dutchy is skating very well for us. That was a big goal for our team that he scored, and it shows you that good things happen when you go to the net.”
Adrian Dater: adater@denverpost.com or at twitter.com/adater
