GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Avalanche’s Saturday night game against the Arizona Coyotes was one of the handful of times a season when Colorado center Matt Duchene reunites with his uncle, Newell Brown.
Brown, 54, has been an NHL assistant coach since 1996, and he’s in his fourth season under Dave Tippett at Arizona. During Duchene’s rookie season, in 2009-10, Brown was with Anaheim and he went on to spend three seasons with Vancouver before moving on to the Coyotes.
Brown’s sister, Christine Duchene, a former basketball player at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, is Matt’s mother.
“It’s always fun to play against him,” Duchene said after scoring two goals in the Avalanche’s 3-2 win over the Coyotes. “Obviously, we always chat. We chat a lot and he’s been a great mentor for me, so it’s always good to catch up with him.”
A standout at Michigan State and then an assistant coach for the Spartans, Brown also served as head coach at Michigan Tech for two seasons before going to the NHL. Brown’s past connection to Michigan State was the major reason why Duchene at one point declared if he took the NCAA hockey path, he would attend Michigan State. Instead, he played major junior for the Brampton Battalion.
Reunion II. Another Coyotes assistant coach, Jim Playfair, was coach of the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat when he hired Jared Bednar, then the head coach of the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, as his assistant coach in 2009.
After their one season together, Playfair declared that Bednar was ready to be an AHL head coach and recommended him to the St. Louis Blues to coach their AHL affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen. That was the first of Bednar’s two stints as an AHL head coach, laying the groundwork for his move to Colorado.
Birthday candles. The Avalanche no longer has any teenagers on its roster. Finnish winger Mikko Rantanen, who played his second game this season for Colorado after returning from San Antonio, turned 20 on Saturday. After 11 games with the Avalanche over two seasons, the first-round pick from the 2015 draft still is looking for his first NHL point. He had 17:09 of ice time Saturday and was a minus-2.
Scratches. Winger Cody McLeod was a healthy scratch for the fourth time in Colorado’s seven games. The other healthy scratch was Gabriel Bourque for the second straight game. Defenseman Fedor Tyutin missed a third consecutive game with a groin injury.
Day off. The Avalanche won’t practice Sunday.
Head count. The game drew an announced crowd of 13,533 in the Glendale arena — praised for virtually everything except its geographic location on the northwest side of the metro area — across the street from University of Phoenix Stadium in the Westgate Entertainment District. The Coyotes sold out their only only other home game, the season opener against Philadelphia.
Net effect. Arizona goalie Louis Domingue had 31 saves as he fell to 1-5 for the season. He has less incentive against the Avalanche than he did when Patrick Roy, his major junior coach with the Quebec Remparts from 2009-12, was behind the Colorado bench.
As the playoffs were about to open in the spring of 2014, Roy responded, “Bad goaltending,” when he was asked how the Remparts managed to blow a 3-0 lead in a 2012 playoff series against Halifax. That ignited angry responses via social media from Domingue, then in the minors, who said Roy had provided him little support, had torn him down rather than built him up, and called his former coach “one of the worst people I’ve ever met.”
Late in the 2014-15 season, after the Avalanche beat the Coyotes 5-2 with Domingue in the Arizona, Roy said: “As a coach you always like to see your players saying good things about (you) but unfortunately itap a position thatap impossible. You wish the best for any of your players, and when you’re coaching those young guys at the lower level, I think itap your job to prepare them for the next level. Tonight, I was watching him and he was in the NHL. I must have done a good job somewhere to help him achieve that goal. I believe he should say thank you.”
