Avalanche coach Patrick Roy spent more time than usual in teaching mode during Saturday's hour-long practice, the team's first workout in a week because of games in Los Angeles and San Jose that came just before the three-day Christmas break.

Of course, getting swamped 7-2 in Chicago on Friday might have had something to do with it.

"There were questions guys were asking and I just want to make sure we're all on the same page," Roy said. "I thought it was good for us to do some video before practice, touching on some details of our game. I said to the guys, we're beating ourselves. If we correct those details, we're going to be tougher to play against. We have to find a way to remain in the game and give ourselves a chance to win."

There seemed to be plenty of give-and-take between Roy and players, which center Matt Duchene said is one of Roy's strengths.

"He does a lot of teaching, and the nice part is we can debate ideas with him," Duchene said. "He's not a dictator. Most of the time he is right because he's such a smart hockey guy, but every now and then we'll bring something up and he'll concede to it and say we can do that as well. That's nice to have as a coach because he's talked about being one of our partners the whole time. He truly is living up to that.

"The nice thing that Patty's doing, when we have a game like (Friday), he's more excited about the possibility of fixing those things. He was excited this morning. He's more of a glass half-full versus glass half-empty guy."

Roy said the Hawks played so well that it might not have mattered if his team had played its 'A' game.

"Chicago was sharp, I have to give it to them," he said, adding that he wouldn't use not having a morning skate as an excuse. But 10 games were played Friday and the Avalanche was the only team that had to travel to a different time zone. All visiting teams had to travel the morning of the game after the break.

"You look at the big picture, it's unacceptable that we have to lose an hour to go to Chicago and then we have to be up at 4 in the morning ... how can you give a good show?" Roy said. "No matter what, we were in a bad spot. We've done it in the past, but why didn't Chicago come here?

"Denver going to Chicago, you lose an hour. If you want to play at night, you have to be up at 4 or 5 in the morning to get to the airport because you need to leave an hour and a half (open), if it's not two hours, to have a good morning skate. It's nonsense. I'm not going to blame the fact that we didn't skate. We don't have a bad schedule, but at the same time that was not good."

Said Duchene: "It was our worst game defensively all season against arguably the best offensive team in the league. We were already behind the eight-ball with the traveling. Until they scored their second goal, I thought we played a good hockey game. We kind of unraveled after that."

*****

Traveling won't be a problem for a while. The Avalanche opens a seven-game homestand Sunday night against Winnipeg and won't hit the road again until Jan. 11. The Avalanche also will play Columbus (New Year's Eve), Philadelphia, San Jose, Calgary, Ottawa and the New York Islanders on the homestand.

"If we take care of business like we can at home and use the altitude to our advantage, we can really build a great foundation going forward for this year," Duchene said. "It can be a huge turning point for us. We want to be one of those teams that goes north after Christmas, not south. We've done that in the past. You can make the playoffs or lose the playoffs in January, believe it or not. It's a huge homestand for us and we have to dominate at home.

"It's always fun to play at home during the holiday season. New Year's Eve, there's going to be a lot of people fired up to go to that game. The teams coming in are teams that play an exciting brand of hockey. I think it's going to be a great homestand."

The Avalanche has been a middle-of-the-pack team at home, ranking 13th in the NHL with a 12-5-1 record and 25 points. Colorado is 2-0-1 in the past three home games with wins against Edmonton and Dallas and a shootout loss to Minnesota after squandering a late third-period lead.

The Avalanche is 0-1-2 in the past three games -- all on the road -- and 4-5-3 in December with two games remaining this month.

"It's one of the key moments in our season," Roy said of the homestand. "We've been looking at the schedule and we knew that we had this stretch coming up. We're in a good position in the standings and now we need to be red-hot at home. (Sunday) night will be an important game for us, to start it on the right foot and make sure that we have a strong start."

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Roy said Semyon Varlamov will start in goal and defenseman Cory Sarich will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch in Chicago. Roy said he hadn't yet decided which defenseman would sit out.

Ryan Wilson played Friday, his first game since hurting his back Nov. 6 against Nashville, and had an even plus/minus rating while playing 21:25. He was paired with Tyson Barrie, who was plus-1 and played 22:02.

"We picked an easy one, Chicago," Roy said with a laugh. "Barrie and him did a good job. I was happy with him. It's not easy when you miss 22 games and I thought he responded well. I thought for his first game back he did a good job. There's a lot of things that he's going to have to adjust -- D-zone coverage, moving his feet, game shape. He's going to need some time, but I'm confident that things are going to go well for him."

*****

Jets coach Claude Noel told Winnipeg reporters that Al Montoya will start in goal against the Avalanche. Montoya replaced Ondrej Pavelec in the first period Friday after Pavelec gave up three goals on six shots to Minnesota. Montoya stopped 22 of 23 shots in the Jets' 6-4 win. He owns a 6-2-1 record with a 2.14 goals against average and .923 save percentage.

Jets defensemen Mark Stuart (lower-body injury) and Zach Bogosian (food poisoning) traveled to Denver with the team and there's a good chance both will play Sunday.

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