Before its five-day bye period begins Saturday, the downtrodden Avalanche has one more game to get out of the way — Friday night’s meeting with the New York Islanders at the Pepsi Center.
Although Semyon Varlamov has recovered enough from his groin muscle issues to suit up and serve as the backup, Calvin Pickard will get his seventh consecutive start in the net for the Avalanche, which also will bring in losing streaks of five games overall and 10 games at home.
“Best case scenario for (Varlamov) is that he still gets another six days of work and rest and then gets back in the net,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said after the morning skate.
Bednar said defenseman Francois Beauchemin was ill and wouldn’t play, and Mikhail Grigorenko and Andreas Martinsen would be the healthy scratches among the forwards.
Newly arrived winger Matt Nieto, a Thursday waiver claim from the San Jose Sharks, was on a line with Carl Soderberg and Jarome Iginla at the skate. The Avalanche didn’t practice Thursday after its early morning return from Calgary.
“He’s an interesting guy,” Bednar said. “He’s got some good experience on a winning team. He plays with a lot of energy, he plays with pace and he’s a competitive guy. We need a little bit of all that in our lineup. He’s a good penalty killer as well, so he kind of brings us a lot of things we need.”
Bednar cautioned overreacting to Nieto starting out on the line with Soderberg and Iginla.
“To be fair, I’d like to evaluate him here for a couple of games and see where our lines kind of fit,” Bednar said. “Obviously, we’re searching for some lines that produce, not just that line, but all the way around the lineup. We’re trying a couple of different things here tonight and we’ll see how it goes.”
Nieto, 24, had been a healthy scratch in 13 of the Sharks’ last 16 games. The Long Beach, Calif., native and former Boston University standout had 28 career goals in 221 games for the Sharks. He was placed on waivers Wednesday, and expectations were that he would be claimed — whether by Colorado or another team.
“It was a long 24 hours, just waiting, but I’m really happy that Colorado picked me up,” he said after the skate. It’s a good opportunity. I couldn’t be more excited. This morning, everyone is really welcoming, really nice to me, helping me out. I’m looking forward to going from here.”
But going from a team that made the Stanley Cup finals last season to a bad team?
“I don’t think this is a bad team,” he said. “There’s a lot of talented guys in this room. A lot of young talent. It’s just a matter or being able to put a couple of wins together. We can definitely do it, just everyone’s got to be on the same page. I’m going to try to provide energy, use my legs, play fast, make plays, but also be defensively solid as well and try to be a good P.K. guy.”
He said of at least at the outset playing with Iginla: “Oh, man, that’s just awesome. You grow up watching a guy like that and to be able to get an opportunity to play with him is just an honor.”
