Avs to face former goalie tonight in showdown with Toronto

DENVER – Calvin Pickard gets a chance at revenge Saturday night against the team that spurned him at the NHL Expansion Draft.

Pickard, the former Avs goalie, will get the start in net for his new Toronto Maple Leafs club against the Avs at Pepsi Center (7 p.m). Pickard was just recalled by the Maple Leafs from their AHL affiliate, and the Maple Leafs played Thursday night against Arizona. Pickard, in fact, was the lone Leafs player at the Pepsi Center this morning, as the team didn’t otherwise have a morning skate.

Pickard was the first selection in the Expansion Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights, after the Avs chose to protect Semyon Varlamov over him. Pickard, however, had a rough training camp and was traded by the Golden Knights to Toronto before the start of the regular season.

With the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, Pickard posted a 10-5-0 record, 2.21 goals-against average and .919 saves percentage.

Jared Bednar said it will be a challenge limiting the offensive chances of the Maple Leafs, who scored seven goals last night against the Coyotes and have nine players with 20 points or more.

“They’re a real hungry team offensively,” Bednar said. “They get a lot of their chances in tight. Owning that area of the ice and making sure we’re sealing out, clearing pucks and being hard to play against down there is important. On the flipside of things, that’s an area tonight that we have to try and expose. We’ve got to get to the interior of the ice with the puck and we’ve got to shoot a lot of pucks. We need to get some traffic for some rebounds and some second-chance opportunities. Whether it’s ‘Pick’ or someone else, it’s the same game plan.”

Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said the team has “flushed it down the toilet”, its loss Wednesday against the last-place Coyotes.

“Obviously, we came out flat and didn’t play to our identity,” MacKinnon said. “We need to raise our game.”

NOTEBOOK

• Nail Yakupov will get a night off as a healthy scratch. Gabriel Bourque will replace him in the lineup.
• Semyon Varlamov will get his fifth straight start and play against his backup from last year.
• Although Andrei Mironov was recalled by the Avs from San Antonio, he will not play tonight. Bednar will go with the same six D-men he had against the Coyotes.