Calvin Pickard (Getty Images file)
RALEIGH — It’s off to Florida today to catch up with the Avalanche … well, sort of.
Colorado isn’t practicing today on the off day between the 3-2 shootout loss to Carolina and the meeting with the Florida Panthers Thursday night, so I won’t be seeing the team until the morning skate in Sunrise.
I’ll have a story in the morning paper and online on goalie Calvin Pickard, who had 44 saves against Carolina, and his curious situation. Here’s a guy who as of this afternoon (Eastern Time) is leading the NHL in save percentage (.936) and is seventh in goals-against average (2.18).
He’s behind only behind St.Louis’ Brian Elliott (1.95), Nashville’s Pekka Rinne (1.95), Winnipeg’s Michael Hutchinson (2.00), Detroit’s Jimmy Howard (2.11), Chicago’s Corey Crawford (2.15) and Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andrew Fleury (2.16).
Said center John Mitchell, who had one of the goals against Carolina: “Picks has played unbelievable. Every time he gets called up here, he puts forth his ‘A’ game all the time.”
Pickard will have more comments in the story, but I wasn’t able to work in, either in the game story from Raleigh or in the upcoming feature, his comments on the shootout, when Victor Rask and Elias Lindholm beat him on the Hurricanes’ two chances and Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene failed for the Avalanche, who dropped to 5-3 in shootouts this season.
“Sometimes fakes get you, no matter how hard you’re trying not to bite, and I ended up biting on both,” Pickard said. “That’s the one thing I wanted to get better at, is being patient on these guys. They’re high-class talent and they’ll make you pay if they bite.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
