PITTSBURGH — No morning skate for the Avalanche, a decision made for two reasons: 1) Avs practiced the last three days and are properly prepared; 2) No need to double their chances of someone catching the mumps and having the illness spread through the team like the Penguins.
I chose to skip the morning skate too. Because of the mumps outbreak here, I wasn’t going to go into the Pittsburgh locker room anyway. It would have been good to get some video on Sidney Crosby, but that’s available elsewhere.
Sidney Crosby (Associated Press file)
— who felt ill and was tested for mumps this week — has been cleared and will start against Colorado. The jury is still out on defensemen Robert Bortuzzo and Olli Maatta, who remain in isolation while awaiting their test results.
Here’s, written after a 9 a.m. practice Wednesday when I was en route to DIA.
