McGinn’s versatility vital toAvalanche in playo≠s
With injuries helping force Avalanche coach Patrick Roy to shuffle his lines all season, Jamie McGinn has been a valuable winger on one of the top two lineswhen hewas needed there, and on the third line on the rare occasions he wasn’t.
That’s the case again in the first-round playoff series against Minnesota, and in Saturday night’s Game 2 against the Wild, McGinn and P.A. Parenteau were on the Ryan O’Reillycentered line.
McGinn had a goal and an assist in the Avalanche’s Game 1 overtime victory. In the 4-2 Coloradowin in Game 2, he had two shots on goal but no points as the Gabe Landeskog-Paul Stastny-Nathan MacKinnon line again was dominant.
“We’re going to continue to work hard and keep the puck in their end,” McGinn said. “We’re going to try to contribute, and we definitely did last game. Their line stole the show tonight, but that’s what it takes to get through the playoffs — all lines clicking.”
With San Jose, McGinn’s first NHLplayoff experience came in 2010, starting with a six-game Sharks victory over the Avalanche.
Although young teammates such as MacKinnon and Landeskog are in the postseason for the first time, McGinn hasn’t talked with them about his playoff experiences — which now cover 24 games.
“There are other guys they can look to for that,” McGinn said. “I try to help out as much as I can with little things, like keeping it level and not trying to run around too much because the excitement and jitters get going.”
After the Sharks shipped McGinn to Colorado at the 2012 trading deadline, he scored eight goals in 17 games the rest of that season, then had 11 in 47 games a year ago.
McGinn and John Mitchell, nowout with concussion symptoms, have been the utility forwards underRoy. Matt Duchene (sprained knee) isn’t expected back until the second round, if theAvalanche advances that far. If Duchene returns, O’Reilly will go back to wing, necessitating shuffling. ButMcGinn had 19 goals this season, showing adaptability.
Raised in Fergus, Ontario, McGinn’s path to the NHL included eight years of his father, Bob, routinely driving him 70 miles to Toronto, where Jamie played in the Greater Toronto Hockey League programs. His younger brother Tye, 23, now is with the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate and Brock, 20, plays for major junior’s Guelph Storm.
“I had to go where the compete levelwas a little higher and the players were a little better,” McGinn said. “I wanted to give myself a better chance of going on. We had a Dodge Caravan that had over 600,000 kilometers on it and had four transmissions or something like that. My dadwas very proud that he kept it on the road.”
Eventually, McGinn joined major junior’s Ottawa 67s, then was San Jose’s second-round draft pick in 2006. He’s still only 25, but seven players on theAvalanche playoff roster are younger. “I feel like I act like a young guy,” he said with a laugh.