Trip after trade helped to Sweden the deal
Avs defenseman says weeklong stay overseas “helped us out a lot” in jelling
CHICAGO» Defenseman Erik Johnson says the Avalanche began to jell in November during their weeklong trip to Sweden, which began immediately after Colorado traded disgruntled center Matt Duchene to Ottawa.
“We came together pretty early,” Johnson said from the United Center, where the Avs on Tuesday night solidified their Western Conference wild-card playoff standing with a 5-1 victory over Chicago. “The trip to Sweden helped us out a lot. We had a lot of fun together and got to know one another. It kind of took us a little while to hit our stride, but we’re a team that really gets along on and off the ice and we have fun coming to the rink together.”
Johnson never mentioned Duchene’s name in the one-onone interview, and it’s possible the Avs’ rise shortly after the trade is only coincidence. But, the Avs were 8-6-0 when they traded Duchene, and are now 40-25-8 with nine regular-season games left. They are 8-1-3 in
their last 12 games and entered Wednesday night with the sixth most points (88) in the Western Conference. They finished with 48 points last season, and have become the first team to post a 40point improvement from one season to the next since Pittsburgh jumped 47 points from 2006-07.
“That just goes to show how bad we were last year,” Johnson said. “The worst team in the league this year will have 60something points. If you take that into context, they wouldn’t have 120-something next year, right? I think that shows you how bad we finished last year and how different we are this year. It’s a testament to the guys that are still here and the new guys that came in — and all of us believing in ourselves.”
Duchene requested a trade because he didn’t want to be part of another rebuild, Avs general manager Joe Sakic said after the threeteam deal was completed.
“I don’t think we care about (doubling 48 points). We just want to get in the playoffs,” Johnson said. “And I think we need to go better than 5-5 if we’re going to make it, whether that’s 7-3, 8-2 or 9-1 — I think we can’t look at .500 at the benchmark.”
The Avs have the youngest active roster in the NHL, with an average age of 25.4. Sakic replaced six 30-somethings — Rene Bourque, Jarome Iginla, Francois Beauchemin, Fedor Tyutin, John Mitchell and Cody McLeod — with rookies, including Tyson Jost, 20, and Sam Girard, 19.
“Shows you how quick a rebuild could happen,” Johnson said. “After last year, we said we were rebuilding, and here we are in a potential playoff spot. It just shows that rebuilds won’t take that long if you’re committed to playing with your young players and going through growing pains. They’re not as long as they used to take.”
Duchene and the Senators (2635-11, 63 points) are now in a rebuild, just five points ahead of Buffalo, which has a league-low 58 points. Ottawa was 6-3-5 when it acquired Duchene.