Shawn Matthias will make his Avalanche debut Wednesday against San Jose at the Pepsi Center after arriving in town 1 o'clock in the morning following his flight from Toronto.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
Matthias, 28, who is 6-feet-4 and 231 pounds, will play left wing on a line with center
Carl Soderberg and right wing
Blake Comeau. He had six goals and 11 assists in 51 games with Toronto after signing as a free agent last summer. He had 18 goals and nine assists in 78 games with Vancouver in 2014-15.
"It's going to be fun, I'm excited for this opportunity," he said after taking part in the morning skate. "I just want to play my game, compete every night, bring some energy and try and help the team get into the playoffs. Coming to a new team I just want to contribute, be a hard working guy, complement my linemates."
The Avalanche acquired Matthias on Sunday from Toronto for minor league center
Colin Smith and a fourth-round pick in the 2016 NHL draft.
"I was at breakfast with a couple of my friends, we had the day off and I got the phone call," said Matthias, who was in the Toronto area at the time. "It was funny, 10 minutes before I was talking about how I wasn't going to get traded. It kind of caught me off-guard, but I was really excited when I heard the trade. I don't really know too much about Colorado, I just know it's a cool city and I was very excited to come here and check it out. There's a lot of skill on this team, a lot of youth, some great hockey players."
Matthias said his parents will be even more surprised about the trade. He said they're on vacation in Jamaica and won't get home until this weekend.
"They don't even know I've been traded yet," he said. "It should be pretty funny when they get back."
Matthias is a Canadian citizen, and it took until Tuesday afternoon for his immigration/work status paperwork to be completed.
"It took a little while to get the visa, got it yesterday at 4 o'clock (Eastern time) and I was on a plane at 8:40," he said. "It was tough sitting around and not skating for a couple days. It was tough, but I'm happy to be here now."
Matthias will be playing against two Sharks players -- defenseman
Roman Polak and forward
Nick Spaling -- who were Maple Leafs teammates four days ago. The Sharks acquired Polak and Spaling on Monday for forward
Raffi Torres and second-round selections in 2017 and 2018.
Spaling, who was Matthias' linemate, and Polak arrived in Denver at midnight, an hour before Matthias.
"It's kind of funny, we were actually on different planes," Matthias said. "We were joking around that we could be seat partners one last time."
Matthias will wear jersey No. 18, the digits he had while with Florida for parts of five seasons.
"Pretty pumped, my favorite number," he said. "I didn't ask for it, just got it."
Didn't have the heart to tell Matthias, who is eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season, that No. 18 hasn't been the best to wear in Colorado in terms of longevity.
Adam Deadmarsh, Chris Drury, Alex Tanguay and
Stephane Yelle were all traded after wearing it, though Tanguay has since returned.
Jesse Winchester has yet to play a regular-season game after signing as a free agent before last season after sustaining a concussion in a preseason game in September 2014.
Coach
Patrick Roy showed Matthias some video before the morning skate -- "Showed him a bit of our structure," he said -- and told him to play hard, have fun, "enjoy the ride" in his first game.
"I think he’s going to be a good complement to the line of Soderberg and Comeau," Roy said. "I think he’s going to be able to play against good lines. I think he can bring some offense as well.”
*****
Center
Nathan MacKinnon took part in the morning skate and will play. He said he felt fine after missing practice Tuesday because of illness.
*****
Unlike the last time he faced the Sharks, goalie
Calvin Pickard is healthy. He was fighting a flu bug Jan. 26 in San Jose when he allowed four goals on 20 shots in two periods in the Avalanche's 6-1 loss. He was pressed into action because
Semyon Varlamov was in a Denver courtroom during the civil lawsuit against him at the time.
Ironically, Pickard is starting now because Varlamov was ill and didn't practice Tuesday; he did take part in the morning skate and will be the backup.
"I guess it was a tough situation, but I felt like I could have played," Pickard said. "I didn't eat a whole lot that day and they put a couple IVs in me. I was drinking a lot of fluids, so I felt better by the time the game came around compared to the morning. I didn't feel the way I wanted, but we bounced back the next night and got a win."
Pickard made 35 saves in a 4-3 win against the Kings on Jan. 27.
His parents will get to watch him play Wednesday. They already were scheduled to arrive to attend the Stadium Series game on Saturday.
"Kind of a bonus, I guess," Pickard said.
Here's the Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS
Mikhail Grigorenko - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla
Alex Tanguay - Nathan MacKinnon - Gabriel Landeskog
Shawn Matthias - Carl Soderberg - Blake Comeau
Cody McLeod - John Mitchell - Jack Skille
DEFENSE
Francois Beauchemin - Erik Johnson
Nick Holden - Tyson Barrie
Chris Bigras - Andrew Bodnarchuk
GOALIES
Calvin Pickard
Semyon Varlamov
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