The Avalanche on Tuesday placed
Tyson Barrie and
Rene Bourque, both with lower body injuries, on injured reserve and recalled center
Jim O'Brien from San Antonio.
Barrie and Bourque will be eligible to return after this weekend's NHL All-Star festivities.
Matt Duchene (ill) didn't practice after being a late scratch Monday and his status won't be known until Wednesday, though the Avalanche isn't having a morning skate. It's one reason why coach
Jared Bednar had them go through a pretty brutal bag skate after practice.
"There's a chance he could play," Bednar said.
The Avalanche summoned O'Brien, 27, in case Duchene can't go. They were short a forward in the 5-2 loss to San Jose when
Patrick Marleau scorched them for four third-period goals.
Bednar said earlier that
Calvin Pickard would start against the Canucks, the Avalanche's last game before the break.
Bednar said there wasn't anything new to report about
Semyon Varlamov (groin), who has been shut down until at least after the All-Star break.
O'Brien, who is 6-feet-3 and 195 pounds, has seven goals, 10 assists, 14 penalty minutes and a plus-3 rating with the Rampage. The Minnesota native was signed as a free agent July 1. He's spent most of his pro career in the minors, but has eight goals, four assists and 16 penalty minutes in 67 NHL games with Ottawa and New Jersey. He was the Senators' first-round pick (No. 29) in 2007.
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Colorado (13-30-2) has lost six games in a row (0-5-1), is 1-13-1 in the past 15 at home -- 5-17-1 there for the season -- and 2-15-1 in the past 18 overall. They are 23 points out of the playoffs; it might as well be 230.
This sure isn't what
Jarome Iginla, 39, signed up for three years ago.
"It's not easy, I'd be lying if I said it was easy being this far out," said Iginla, who had a power-play goal Monday, giving him six goals and as many assists in 45 games. "I was hoping we'd have a lot better year, but going through it, I'm just trying to make sure that I'm working hard, keeping my habits up and getting my game better.
"I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I want to keep working and try to help the younger guys to learn and grow. The older guys helped me when I was younger, and I remember the things they taught me, so I'm trying to be a good example. Once you get out there it's always still fun to compete and play."
Would Iginla welcome a trade before the March 1 deadline?
"I've thought about it, it's part of hockey," he said. "If they can trade guys at the deadline and get draft picks or something for it, I'm sure they'll do that, and I'm aware that that's a possibility. That's in a month, so if that situation comes, then I'll deal with it then. Right now the focus is literally just each game and stuff, but I realize that's the nature of the game, that's part of it, and I'll deal with it when it comes."
This will be the third consecutive season without playoffs for Iginla. The Avalanche were in a postseason spot last year until losing eight of the final nine games, including the last six.
"I've been out of the playoffs many times, but a lot of those years it (came down to) the last week," he said. "This one, it's a pretty far stretch to get back into it at this point -- it's a lot of points. We can't look at that big picture. Every year there's a team that is like that, and unfortunately we're having that tough go so far.
"I think we're still motivated. The motivation has to be just to get better, to develop as a team and also personally to grow -- especially for the young guys to take a lot from this, learn a lot from this, take the long view and get the work habits ... and hopefully be the only first half of the year that ever happens like this."
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