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Matt Duchene on his return: 'I'm pretty emotional today' |
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Rick Sadowski
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Matt Duchene doesn’t know what to expect from the Pepsi Center crowd Friday night when he makes his first appearance as a member of the Ottawa Senators after playing eight-plus seasons with the Avalanche.
“Everybody knows my story, in terms of what this franchise has meant to me since I was a kid,” Duchene, who requested the trade, said after the morning skate. “It was definitely tough to leave, one of those things -- what you want and what you need are two different things and sometimes you have to make tough decisions.
“I enjoyed my time here and it was an honor and dream to be an Av, that’s the bottom line. It’s going to be emotional for me tonight. I’ll try and keep all those emotions pushed down so I can focus on the game as much as I can, but you’re only human. It’s going to feel a little weird.
“I hope people understand that this is a business. Sometimes you got to do some things that are tough. It wasn’t something I just woke up one day and decided, it was something that I fought for a long time. The writing was kind of on the wall for me for a while for what I might need (for) an upper trajectory for my career. It was really hard.
“I love the fans here, I loved playing in front of them all the years I played in front of them. We had a lot in common; everyone here grew up an Avs fan, I grew up an Avs fan. I’m one of them. I’m sure there’ll be the odd boo here and there – or maybe a lot, I don’t know – but the message I want to get out is I gave everything I had when I played here, right up until the last day.”
Duchene, saying he didn’t want to be part of another rebuilding situation with the Avalanche, was traded to the Senators on Nov. 5, 2017 in a three-team transaction with the Nashville Predators. He played two games against the Avalanche in Stockholm as part of the 2017 SAP NHL Global Series.
Duchene has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in eight games this season. He was the Avalanche’s first-round pick (No. 3) in the 2009 NHL Draft, played 586 regular-season games in parts of nine seasons and is seventh in Colorado/Quebec franchise history with 178 goals and 10th for assists (250) and points (428).
“I’m pretty emotional today,” he said. “It’s hard not to feel that way, especially given what playing here meant to me and still means to me with this franchise, as it will always kind of be for me,” he said.
Duchene still has a home in the Denver area – his wife, Ashley, is from Colorado -- and they are expecting their first child in January. He and his wife, who flew in from Ottawa, were at the house Wednesday night after the Senators arrived in town, but he stayed at the team hotel Thursday.
“This city is still home for me and always will be because I have family here, my wife’s from here, and I grew up here in a way,” he said.
Duchene and his wife had dinner Thursday night with Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog and his wife, and former Colorado defenseman Nate Guenin and his wife. The Landeskogs joined the dinner following the Avalanche’s “meet-and-great” event with season ticket holders.
“The six of us are pretty close,” Duchene said. “All the girls -- the girls spent so much time together when we played together -- and were all in each other’s weddings this past year and a bit. We had a good little dinner. It was good to catch up.”
Duchene has rented a suite at the Pepsi Center for the game. Family and friends, including former teammates who live in the area, will be in attendance.
“Obviously I know this game’s been coming, and coming early in the season, which is good,” he said. “As a team we’ve had a great start. Our record (4-3-1) is solid, but it could be even better with the way we’ve played. A lot of good things.”
While the Avalanche rebounded from the embarrassing 48-point season in 2016-17 to earn 95 points and a playoff berth last year, the Senators missed the postseason. The Avalanche have gotten off to 6-2-2 start this season.
“Once I left I kind of turned the page,” Duchene said. “I was happy for them. I messaged everyone from Joe (Sakic), the coaching staff and a bunch of the guys on the team. I just congratulated them on the year. They deserved it, they had a great year.
“It didn’t really affect me either way because I was just focused on my future with Ottawa and I started to feel like myself again for the first time in a long time,” he said. “We had a tough year, but you turn the page and this year we’re doing well.
*****
Goalie Philipp Grubauer will make his first home start for the Avalanche, and coach Jared Bednar is changing two line combinations in an attempt to get some much-needed secondary scoring: Alexander Kerfoot will center Sven Andrighetto and Marko Dano, and Vladislav Kamenev will center Tyson Jost and Colin Wilson.
The top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen scored 13 of the Avalanche’s 16 goals in the past six games.
The lineup:
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Sven Andrighetto -- Alexander Kerfoot – Marko Dano
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Tyson Jost – Vladislav Kamenev – Colin Wilson
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
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