The Avalanche didn't practice Tuesday but had off-ice workouts following their 3-2 overtime win on Monday in Columbus to complete a 2-1-0 road trip to get back to .500 (9-9-0).
As far as news, captain
Gabriel Landeskog (lower-body injury) had an off-ice workout Monday and Tuesday. Coach
Jared Bednar said he would skate "a little bit" Wednesday if the training staff feels he's ready. He won't play against Edmonton when the Avalanche open a five-game homestand.
"He's starting to feel better, so hopefully he's a player for us in the near future," Bednar said.
Aside from the return of
Matt Duchene, who scored the overtime goal against the Blue Jackets after missing four games with a concussion, and the play of goalie
Semyon Varlamov (40 saves), the Avalanche received some encouraging offensive production from
Tyson Barrie and
Erik Johnson.
Varlamov, by the way, will start against the Oilers.
Barrie scored his first goal since opening night and Johnson his first of the season before setting up Duchene for his goal. Barrie has two goals, six assists and is minus-6 in 18 games while averaging 22:37 in ice time. Johnson has one goal, nine assists and is minus-1 in 18 games while averaging 22:51.
Barrie is in the first year of a four-year, $22 million contract, while Johnson is in the first year of a seven-year, $42 million contract extension.
"If you look at how hard it is to score goals, you need your blue line to be part of it," Bednar said. "I look at some of our offensive zone play and we focused on that a lot before we went on the road. One of the things that helped us out on this road trip was our 'D' were ready to shoot. They were moving across the blue line, had good movement finding lanes, got pucks back to the net.
"Obviously, Barrie and Johnson, those are two guys that can help us coming out of our zone, on the rush and also in our offensive zone play. We need them to be a part of it. It's a five-man attack; it can't just be the forwards doing the work offensively. They stepped up and got big goals for us. We want to see that more consistently. They've been doing a good job, it'll come for them."
Johnson said it was a "little bit" of a relief to finally score. He had 11 goals in 73 games last season and a career-high 12 goals in 47 games the season before.
"I knew it was coming, I was getting a lot of chances," he said. "Right before that I almost scored twice. You stick with it and you know it's going to come. You stick to your instincts and you don't press. I want to contribute, and I was contributing in other areas of the ice. Now, hopefully, the floodgates open."
Johnson realizes that he and Barrie are the Avalanche's most skilled defensemen and can't take so long between goals.
"It's important," Johnson said. "I didn't have any goals, but I was leading the team in assists (now tied with
Nathan MacKinnon). Sometimes those things balance out. Last year I had more goals and not a lot of assists, this year it's kind of flip-flopped. I feel a responsibility to contribute, and so does Tyson. For us to each get one is big and hopefully that's a sign of things to come and we can get on a roll, too, with some wins."
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