Some encouraging news as the Avalanche concludes what has been a disastrous homestand Saturday against Dallas at the Pepsi Center.
Captain
Gabriel Landeskog (lower-body injury) skated briefly Saturday morning -- his first time on the ice in a week -- and "probably" will travel with the team on the upcoming four-game road trip, coach
Jared Bednar said, if he's cleared to practice Monday. The Avalanche has Sunday off.
"He's been working in the gym the past couple days and he's been progressing and he feels better today," Bednar said. "He skated slightly on his own for a few minutes, and that seemed to go well. I've already talked to (the trainers) about that. I would expect he's a guy who's going to continue to move forward and probably be on the road trip with us.
"If he wasn't able to join our group and skate and practice, then he wouldn't come, so we're hopeful that's the way it's going to progress."
The trip begins Tuesday in Nashville.
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Rocco Grimaldi, called up Friday from San Antonio, will play right wing on a line with
Mikhail Grigorenko and
Matt Duchene. Grimaldi, who is 5-feet-6 and 180 pounds, was acquired from Florida on June 23 for goalie
Reto Berra. He was leading the Rampage in scoring with 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 19 games.
"For me, it's moving my feet," Grimaldi said. "My speed is probably my biggest asset. I know they want to play fast here, that's something I can bring, so I want to work hard and get pucks in, be smart with it and make plays when they're there. Me being here is an opportunity for me to come in and prove myself, and I hope to stick around longer than a couple days.
"I've always been the shortest guy on every team I've ever been on, so I'm not going to go in and make huge hits. I just want to be annoying to play against. When you're outside, outdoors, and you've got the little bugs as pests going around you, it's annoying. That's kind of how I try to play, be hard on the forecheck and never give up, even if they might beat me out of the corner and I'm still there, I'm still on them. I know how annoying that is to be playing against, you think you have a guy beat and then he's still there.
"If there's one thing I can say about myself, it's that I always work hard, I always give an effort. Whether I play the best game of my life or the worst game of my life, I can say that I gave an effort. That's one thing that I know teams want. That's the DNA inside of me, it's human nature for me to work hard."
Bednar said that
Gabriel Bourque and
Sam Henley, who were sent back to the Rampage after playing Thursday against Columbus, "did a real nice job for us," especially killing penalties against the Blue Jackets' No. 1-rated power play.
But Bednar wanted to reunite the
Blake Comeau-John Mitchell-Jarome Iginla line -- Bourque was with Mitchell and Iginla -- and he said Grimaldi had earned the opportunity for a call-up.
"He's had a real good start to the season, he's seen some games in the NHL before, he's quick, he can get on pucks, he's playing with confidence and we're getting real good reports on him," Bednar said. "Our guys like what they've seen ... give a guy a chance to come up here and prove himself on one of our top lines."
Grimaldi, who is from Anaheim, played at the University of North Dakota for three years and was Florida's second-round pick (No. 33) in the 2011 NHL draft. He played in 20 games with the Panthers last season and has four goals and two assists in 27 career NHL games.
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While the Avalanche are 0-3-1 on the homestand, the Stars are 0-2-1 on a road trip that ends Saturday
Semyon Varlamov starts for Colorado,
Kari Lehtonen for Dallas.
The Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS
Mikko Rantanen -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Rene Bourque
Mikhail Grigorenko -- Matt Duchene -- Rocco Grimaldi
Blake Comeau -- John Mitchell -- Jarome Iginla
Joe Colborne -- Carl Soderberg -- Andreas Martinsen
DEFENSE
Fedor Tyutin -- Erik Johnson
Patrick Wiercioch -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Francois Beauchemin
GOALIES
Semyon Varlamov
Calvin Pickard
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