Patrick Roy is keeping the faith.
With that has it six points out of the final Western Conference wild-card playoff spot as of Tuesday afternoon, Roy said he is sticking with his recent defensive pairings — at least for the time being.
That came up because of Nate Guenin’s recent struggles, plus the presence of Stefan Elliott as a seventh defenseman, but also as a stylistic duplicate of Tyson Barrie, who returned to the lineup Sunday at Winnipeg as Elliott was a healthy scratch.
“Right now, I would feel uncomfortable to take one of our ‘D’ out because they’ve been here all year,” Roy said at Family Sports Center. “They’ve been loyal to the team, they’ve been working hard for us. Yes, Guenin didn’t play as well, especially the last game in Winnipeg, as he normally has been doing all year. I don’t think it’s a solution to replace him right now.
“We need to look at him more in the practice and see how Stefan does in the practice and from there, we’ll make decisions. But as we speak, I’d like to keep the pairings the same.”
The Avalanche has been 2-3-1 since its top defenseman, Erik Johnson, playing in pain for several weeks, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Jan. 26 and was pronounced out for 3-8 weeks. Roy plugged Zach Redmond into the pairing with Jan Hejda, and also generally has stuck with Brad Stuart-Nick Holden and Guenin with Barrie or, during Barrie’s absence, Elliott.
“I cannot blame the defense, and when I say defense, I mean the entire team defensively,” Roy said. “It’s the lack of scoring that’s been the headache. It’s been like this since the start of the year and you hope that at some time, there’s going to be a spark than enables us to get the confidence back.”
The Avalanche didn’t have an official on-ice practice Tuesday, with only a handful of players skating, and the rest of the team went through off-ice workouts. Those on the ice included Dennis Everberg, Marc-Andre Cliche, Daniel Briere, Elliott, Reto Berra, plus the injured Ryan Wilson — considered shut down for the season following shoulder surgery — and Patrick Bordeleau.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
