This old man . . . plays important role
Blake Comeau looks around the Avalanche dressing room and accepts the truth. He’s an old man playing a young man’s game.
Colorado opened the Stanley Cup Playoffs featuring the NHL’s most youth-laden roster, average age 25.8 years, with Comeau as an outlier. The Avs’ third-line winger joined the league as a secondround draft pick in 2004 — not long after the sixth birthday of now teammate Sam Girard. Comeau, 32, is about four months behind center Carl Soderberg as the team’s second-oldest player. The Avs dressed 11 rookies this season to set a franchise record.
“When I first came into the league, I felt like there were maybe three or four guys (on my team) under the age of 30,” Comeau said. “The game has evolved a little bit now. It seems like every team is trying to go young and quick.”
Now more than ever, though, the Avalanche seeks veteran leadership, trying to rebound from a 2-0 deficit in its first-round playoff series against Nashville. Comeau, a third-year Avs player who wears the “A” on his jersey in the absence of the injured defenseman Erik Johnson, is glad to help. This marks Comeau’s 12th NHL season beover tween five teams, and his third career playoff run after first-round exits in Columbus (2014) and Pittsburgh (2015).
Monday, Comeau lifted the Avs to a 1-0 lead in the first period with a one-timer past Predators’ goaltender Pekka Rinne.
NHL PLAYOFFS
“(Comeau) is not the most vocal guy, but when he says something, everyone listens,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s invaluable to have a handful of guys that our younger guys look up to that have been there before.”
Comeau’s savvy paid dividends in two of the Avs’ last four games. At San Jose on April 5 and against Nashville in Game 1, he set up in front of the opposing net and redirected a teammate’s shot past the goaltender. The technical skill of locating a puck mid-flight and sending it through was refined a long career. A classic example of wisdom over athleticism.
He entered Monday night with 35 points (21 assists and 14 goals).
“I played with some guys that might not have been the greatest skaters in the world, but they tend to score a lot of goals,” Comeau said. “And that’s just from being around the net.”
Comeau is essential in the Avs’ quest to upset Nashville with a return to the Pepsi Center this week, but whether he’ll return next season remains a question mark. Comeau is set to become an unrestricted free agent as teams across the NHL push for more youth and more speed. If it were up to Avs’ captain Gabe Landeskog, however, there would be no discussion.
“It’s hard to describe what (Comeau) means to us as such a young group,” Landeskog said. “He’s a good guy for me as well to bounce some ideas off and talk about certain things.”
Third-year Avalanche winger J.T. Compher, 23, credits Comeau with a leadership style that “holds guys accountable, because he’s been around the block.” But the nine-year age gap isn’t nearly as wide as one might think. Passion for hockey knows no age.
“At times, we’re all acting like little kids, anyway,” Compher said.