Jarome Iginla (Photo by Seth McConnell/The Denver Post)
As the puck drop for the final Avalanche game approaches, I’ve filed my “obit” story that will run in the Sunday paper and perhaps be posted sooner.
I wasn’t able to get Jarome Iginla’s reaction in there, and given his status as an iconic figure and leader in the dressing room and on the ice, I’ll add it here.
He has one year remaining on his three-year, $16-million deal with the Avalanche and when I sat down with him after the morning skate in Dallas Thursday, he . (I knew what the answer would be, but sometimes you just have to ask…)
In fact, one of the Avalanche’s “problems” is that Iginla almost seems reluctant or sheepish about claiming too much leadership responsibility because he’s not the player he once was. But if he’s going to be around next season, even in an additionally diminished role, the Avalanche would be better off with assuring him he can take charge in that department, whether wearing a C, an A or no letter at all.
In addition to his own future, we touched on some other issues.
Should the Avs blow up this team?
“I don’t think so, not at all,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of good pieces, there’s lots of good things. There’s no question it’s been a tough year for us, we’ll all disappointed and we didn’t accomplish the start we wanted to. But you look at Dutchy and Landy and Mac up front, they’re young guys and they’re just getting better. There’s no question sometimes it takes a little more time or whatever to reach the top of their game, but they’re still very good players. They still had good seasons, Dutchy has had a good year. He puts a lot of pressure on himself. He wants to win and be good. The drive is there.
“You look at Nate, what is he, still only 20 this year? We’d all like to do better, but he’s only getting better. I think there’s going to be a lot more great steps for him.
“Landy plays hard all the time, he’s one of the better power forwards in the game.
“And Tyson Barrie back there, he’s still a young D-man and they say young D-men take a little longer as far as getting comfortable. Those guys are all driven and they’re all really good players.
“Varly had a good year for us, we weren’t good enough in front of him.”
Iginla went on to mention other teammates, then added: “I know there’s frustration, as there should be, from fans, but as players, we know we underachieved.”
On the Avalanche’s continuing tendency to be outshot and spend too much time in their own zone, Iginla said: It’s something we have to improve on, there’s no question. I don’t know what the quick fix is, but it’s something that we all realize, that we need to get better at that. But there’s a catch. It can come at the cost of offense, and it doesn’t need to be that way. You look at a lot of the successful teams, they find a way to win. You get better, you play less in your own zone. You have the puck and play more in the other zone.
“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while. We realize it’s not all offense or all defense. We have to get better, more sound, all the way around. I think it will come. We don’t want to face that many shots. We know that Varly’s had a good year for us and we’ve had to rely on our goaltending too much. You don’t get to have the puck that much if they’re getting that many shots. Whatever the answer is, you have to keep it down low in their zone or you have to spend less time in our own zone or the neutral zone. But we have to improve in the O-zone.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
