The Avalanche's disastrous traveling road show continues Tuesday when they take on New Jersey at the Prudential Center.
Career minor-league goalie
Jeremy Smith will make his NHL debut for the Avalanche, who have been outscored 9-3 in the first two games of the five-game trip and have lost nine consecutive road games (0-8-1).
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
Smith, 27, was signed as a free agent last summer to give San Antonio some depth. He's played 17 games and posted a 5-8-1 record with a 2.57 goals-against average and .911 save percentage.
A second-round pick (No. 54) of Nashville in the 2007 NHL draft, the 6-feet, 177-pound Smith is from Dearborn, Mich. He's spent eight seasons in the minors and was recalled by the Avalanche for a second time Feb. 8 when
Spencer Martin was returned to the Rampage.
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Meanwhile, the trade winds continue to swirl around the Avalanche, though there's nothing really new on this front and no certainty they'll do anything major before the league's March 1 trading deadline.
This is a lost season for the Avalanche, so there's no reason for general manager
Joe Sakic to rush into anything.
Former NHL star
Joe Nieuwendyk, a professional scout and adviser for Carolina, watched several recent Avalanche games at the Pepsi Center. The Avalanche play the Hurricanes on Friday to finish their trip.
It's no secret the Avalanche need help on the blue line, and the Hurricanes have several young defensemen who likely have Sakic's interest:
Justin Faulk, 24;
Jaccob Slavin, 22, who is from Denver and played at Colorado College in Colorado Springs; and
Brett Pesce, 22.
Sakic was in New York on Saturday when the Avalanche played the Rangers, and he traveled to Boston to attend Sunday's game between the Bruins and Montreal.
The
Boston Globe reported that Sakic spent most of the second intermission talking with Bruins GM
Don Sweeney. The paper also reported that Avalanche assistant GM
Chris MacFarland and amateur scout
Neil Shea had credentials for the game.
Sakic stayed in Boston to watch Harvard defeat Boston University 6-3 on Monday in the Beanpot championship game.
Would the Bruins really consider moving defenseman
Brandon Carlo, 20, who is from Colorado Springs and having a strong rookie season?
Charlie McAvoy, 19, who was Boston's first-round pick (No. 14) in 2016, is expected to join the Bruins next season. He's a BU sophomore and helped the U.S. win the World Junior Championships.
Ottawa GM
Pierre Dorion told reporters he's had discussions with Sakic but said he doesn't expect anything to happen between the teams.
"I’ve talked to Joe as I’ve talked to a lot of my other counterparts about some things that are out there," Dorion said. "I think it’s the right thing to do, to kick tires, find out what’s available, what’s not available from their team. I don’t think the reports are always accurate so sometimes it’s better to hear from the horse’s mouth. Joe and I talked.
"At this point in time, I can’t see us going in that direction. It wouldn’t make sense. We want to do something to try and improve the team and making deals is very difficult to do. I think since July 1, we’re second after Florida as far as number of deals.
"I can’t see us mortgaging everything in the future and some stuff in the present to get one or two or whatever players are out there. We have to be realistic that we want to improve, but to give up three, four, five assets, it would be something that would be very difficult to do.”
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