There’s an almost 15-year age gap between Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Martin Kaut.

That makes Bellemare the perfect center to help the 20-year-old Kaut navigate his way through his NHL debut.

“Just make sure we are as ready as we can be,” Bellemare told DNVR after morning skate on Wednesday when asked about what he can do to help Kaut. “Keep it simple in the beginning just to make sure we can build his confidence. That’s it. Just simple.”

Bellemare isn’t the only one who knows that keeping it simple will make Kaut’s job a lot easier.

“I had a meeting with Joe (Sakic),” Kaut said before his NHL debut. “He told me ‘just play your game.’ Shoot the puck, skating, and enjoy. For me, I think I’m a good skater and just use my speed and be good on forecheck, and that’s my role.”

Wednesday night will be a tough matchup for the Avs. The Islanders are one of only two teams this season to figure out a way to completely shut down the Avalanche’s offense. Bellemare knows this is a team the Avs just have to stay patient against.

“They block an awful lot of shots,” Bellemare said. “They are confident in their way to play defense, so you have to be sure that you’re as patient as possible so that you don’t open up because you get frustrated and try the extra where you don’t have too. In this kind of situation, you just have to follow the game plan and trust it. We’ve had a few games this year where we had a lot of shots and were the better team, but didn’t get the result we wanted until the last 10 minutes of the game, and this is probably going to be one of those games where you have to be patient and trust the system.”

The always-thoughtful Bellemare knows that the Avs have to make it tougher on opposing offenses.

“Last game I feel like some of the goals we gave are too easy, and you never want to give those goals. This is a team that is going to defend and wait for a mistake to counter.”

The Avs face-off against the Islanders on Wednesday evening. The game starts at 8 PM MST.

NEWS AND NOTES

• Bednar mentioned other than Kaut jumping in, there will be no lineup changes. Zadorov and Girard took morning skate together, putting Cole with Johnson, but Bednar didn’t indicate those changes would stick.
• Semyon Varlamov was the first goalie off the ice for the Islanders and will start against his former team for the second time this season. He shut them out back on January 6.
• With the trade deadline approaching, I asked Bellemare if it gets discussed much in the locker room. He mentioned being on a good team is different, but thought back to his days on the Flyers when he was on the other side. “When I was in Philly, there was a few years where we didn’t make the playoffs, and at that time, yeah, it comes up. Some guys get stressed about that situation. I was one of the guys in that situation. I always tell the young guys there’s nothing you can do about it. Wherever you go, you’re going to still be hockey player in the NHL, so whatever happens, happens for a reason, so no reason to stress about it.”