Pickard To Make First Career Start In Hometown

Talk to Calvin Pickard about Winnipeg, and the Colorado Avalanche goaltender will gladly tell you all about his hometown. Despite being born in Moncton, New Brunswick, Pickard spent most of his childhood in Manitoba's capital city, where many of his family and friends still live to this day.
He is proud of where he grew up, and he returns to the city every offseason to train. On Sunday afternoon, he'll make his first career NHL start in Winnipeg as the Avalanche begins a quick two-game trip against the Jets at MTS Centre.

"I always love going back to Winnipeg. It's home for me," Pickard said after Saturday's practice at Family Sports Center. "I live there in the summers. All the family and friends are there. It's always a fun environment to play in in Winnipeg. I'm definitely looking forward to getting on the plane and getting there and have a nice home cooked meal and get back to work."
Pickard's only other game against the Jets came in Denver on Dec. 11, 2014 when he made 30 saves in a 4-3 shootout victory. That was his ninth career NHL outing.
He's now a more established netminder as he enters Sunday's 1 p.m. MT contest, which will be the third time he's played at the home rink of the Jets. His previous two games came nearly a year ago (Dec. 16-17, 2015) against the Manitoba Moose while he was with the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League.
Prior to last December, he hadn't played in the city since midget hockey.
"It's going to be nice to have the people that have supported me all the way through at the game," Pickard said of the family and friends that will come out to Sunday's matinee contest. "They're all pretty big Jets fans, but I think tomorrow they'll be Avalanche fans, which will be nice for us. It will be fun."

While Pickard is excited to have that support in the arena, he's fully aware of the situation the Avalanche is in. This is a business trip, and Colorado needs to find a way to play more consistent and start picking up wins.
"We haven't had the results that we've wanted the last couple games, but we've done a lot of good things as a team," Pickard said. "We've outplayed both teams for a lot of the games, but 0-2 isn't a great spot for us. We can't dwell on it. We got to look forward and go to Winnipeg and have a good effort there and see what happens."
Pickard will be making his third consecutive start in net for the first time this season, as fellow goalie Semyon Varlamov continues to battle back from a minor groin injury.
Varlamov is making progress as he took part in his first full team practice on Saturday morning. He said afterward that he's feeling good and his main focus is getting his conditioning back to where it was.
"You have to make sure you're 100 percent, you're conditioning is good because when you're losing a couple practices, you lose conditioning right away," Varlamov said. "You're like, 'Oh my god, I'm out of shape,' after four days of not skating. It's the most important thing and then to feel the puck--another important thing for the goalie when you're not practicing for four days again. You just don't feel the puck well, so you need to get back at it and make sure you're ready and 100 percent."

Varlamov will likely skate Sunday morning before the Avs' tilt with the Jets and will get another practice in on Monday in Minnesota. If his rehab continues to go well then he should make his return to the crease for Tuesday's contest at the Wild.
The Russian netminder last played on Sunday in Toronto where he made 51 saves in the Avs' victory.
When the team left on its charter flight Saturday afternoon for Canada, the Denver metro area was having one of its coldest days of the year. Temperatures were in the low single digits, but that will be warm compared to where the Avalanche is going.
"I was talking to my dad this morning, and he was saying something like minus-30 with the wind chill," Pickard said of the weather in Manitoba. "And where we stay it is supposedly the windiest corner in Canada, so that is not going to help our cause. I think we're going to have to stay indoors, for sure."
Even for a Winnipegger, some days it is just better to stay inside.