Patrick Roy, frustrated and a bit peeved after the Avalanche stretched its power-play drought to 0-for-23 in a Thursday night loss to the Detroit Red Wings, slept on it.
So when the Avalanche did considerable work on the power play at Friday’s practice, no drastic rearrangements of personnel were involved.
Nothing like, say, five defensemen out there at once or fourth-line forwards and penalty-killing specialists Marc-Andre Cliche and Max Talbot up front on the first unit. Or even significant tinkering.
“Thank God sometimes you go to bed and you reflect on it and the next day you say, ‘You know what, I’ve said all along I was going to live and die with my top players,’ and I am going to continue to do that,” Roy said. “It would be easy to replace players, but I think sometimes stability and trust is probably the most important thing, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Colorado is at Minnesota on Saturday and at Winnipeg on Sunday in Central Division matchups, and if the power play doesn’t come out of low gear — or its complete stall — it could be a significant setback for the Avalanche’s hopes of climbing into a Western Conference wild-card playoff spot. Colorado was next-to-last in the NHL in power-play efficiency going into Friday night’s games, at 12.8 percent — ahead of only the dreadful Buffalo Sabres.
Roy said of the practice work: “We want to make sure we move the puck faster when we possess the puck on our setup in the O-zone. We want to make sure we see those options maybe a little bit faster. What we worked on is that every 20, 30 seconds, we have to have two shots on net. That forces us to compete to get those rebounds. It forces us to compete to get the puck back and then now to restart a new setup.”
Winger Jarome Iginla, the Avalanche’s leader in goals with 16, often has been playing the point on the power play.
“There’s lots of things that go into the power play,” Iginla said. “There’s work, there’s compete level, there’s confidence. … When we’re not going out there and getting it done, you try not to let it carry over into your five-on-five confidence, but that’s hard. When you’re in a one-goal game and you’ve just had two power plays and you didn’t get it done, it can build up.
“Right now we’re just getting back to where we’re going to work at it, and we’ve got to improve in certain areas — get more shots and all those things you talk about.”
Defenseman Tyson Barrie, who missed the Thursday loss to Detroit because of a hip flexor injury, didn’t practice Friday, but Roy said he will be on the trip and is considered day to day.
Later Friday, the Avalanche recalled defenseman Karl Stollery from Lake Erie as an insurance measure. He likely will be a healthy scratch in both games, but that would give Colorado seven available defensemen if Barrie can’t suit up. Stefan Elliott, recalled from the Monsters last week, stepped into Barrie’s spot in the lineup and in the pairing with Nate Guenin against Detroit on Thursday.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
COLORADO AT MINNESOTA
6 p.m. Saturday, ALT; 950 AM
Spotlight on Devan Dubnyk: The Minnesota goalie will make his ninth consecutive start, and he has been terrific since his acquisition last month from the Arizona Coyotes. With the Wild, he is 6-1-0 with three shutouts, a 1.48 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage.
NOTEBOOK
• Avalanche: Semyon Varlamov is scheduled to get the starts in both games on this trip, Saturday at Minnesota and Sunday at Winnipeg. If it unfolds that way, the Russian goalie will have played 18 of the past 19 games. … Coach Patrick Roy responded with a simple “no” when asked if he had considered playing backup Reto Berra in one of the two road games. “Martin Brodeur and some of those guys played 76 games, 78 games,” Roy said. “(Varlamov) is going to play a lot of games.” … For what it’s worth, the most games Roy played in an NHL season was 68, with Montreal in 1993-94. In his seven full seasons with Colorado, his workload was a low of 61 games and a high of 65.
• Wild: With Dubnyk holding down the fort, Minnesota has won four straight and now trails the Avalanche by one point as both seek to rally to claim a Western Conference playoff berth. … Matt Cooke will miss his second consecutive game for the Wild because of a lower-body injury. … The Wild claimed 5-0 and 3-0 victories over the Avs in the teams’ season-opening, home-and-home series. Darcy Kuemper posted both of those shutouts.
— Terry Frei, The Denver Post
