Mark Barberio was thrown into the fire Saturday, which can get tricky in a game played on ice.
The defenseman claimed on waivers from Montreal on Thursday logged 20:31 of ice time in the Avalanche’s at the Pepsi Center. Colorado had 2:10 of power-play time, and Barberio was on for all but 28 seconds of that.
All that, after just one practice with the Avalanche.
Some of it had to do with being unable to play because of a lower-body injury and missing his fifth game in the past seven, and being unavailable for the third consecutive game because of a groin/hip injury. Also, is skating again but has been out of the lineup since suffering a broken fibula Dec. 3. So the Avalanche’s suspect defensive corps also has had injury issues of late. At even strength, Barberio was paired with .
“It was fun,” Barberio said of his first game with the Avs. “It was fun to get the win. That’s my third time I’ve had a debut with a new team (previously with Tampa Bay and Montreal), and my third win. It’s not easy with new systems and getting used to playing with new guys, but I thought whoever I was out there with was doing a good job of communicating and making my life pretty easy.”
The Avalanche, which snapped its latest losing streak at nine with only its sixth win of the season at the , continues the three-game homestand Tuesday against Montreal.
“tt’s just funny how things like that work,” Barberio said. “Change teams and you’re playing your old team a few days later. It’ll be fun, it’ll be exciting to play against my old teammates.”
Avs coach Jared Bednar said of Barberio: “Obviously, he can skate. So when he goes back for pucks, and even in the neutral zone when he picks up pucks, he’s got such good feet, he gets himself facing up the ice right away and he can look at his first, second and third option and then decide where he wants to move the puck. He didn’t force too many plays and turn them over. He was simple with the puck and moved it efficiently. And then he did a good job defensively.”
Barberio has a year remaining on a two-year, $1.5 million contract, so the Avalanche’s waiver claim was more of a commitment than when it claimed winger Matt Nieto from San Jose in early January. Nieto has a one-year, $735,000 deal, so he is playing under audition conditions. But he scored two goals Saturday against the Jets, including an empty-netter, and has four goals in 11 games with the Avalanche, playing primarily on the -centered line.
Footnotes. The Avs again are sponsoring and sending a team to the Quebec International Pee Wee Hockey Tournament, Feb. 8-20 in Quebec City. The Foothills Flyers, coached by former Colorado defenseman Ken Klee, won the qualifying tournament and will represent the Avs in the AA Division at the tournament, which will have 110 teams from 16 countries. Colorado’s Mikhail Grigorenko, and were honorary coaches at the Flyers’ practice Friday, and the team was honored on the ice before the Avs’ game Saturday. … The Avs didn’t practice Sunday. … After the win over the Jets, Bednar said Barrie, Tyutin and , who was injured on his first shift against the Kings last Wednesday, were “probable to questionable” for the Montreal game Tuesday.
