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Colorado Avalanche Start Calvin Pickard, Reto Berra Overlooked

By Catherine Silverman

Dec 13, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Avalanche goalie Calvin Pickard (31) defends his net in the third period against the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center. The Blues defeated the Avalanche 3-2 in a overtime period. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 13, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Avalanche goalie Calvin Pickard (31) defends his net in the third period against the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center. The Blues defeated the Avalanche 3-2 in a overtime period. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /
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Calvin Pickard awarded another start over backup Reto Berra for Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche are placing their faith in Calvin Pickard, and they aren’t being very subtle about it, either.

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Although his first two NHL appearances resulted in losses, the league got their first real taste of Pickard’s play when he stepped in to salvage back to back games for the team’s true backup, Reto Berra.

Berra had been signed to the team in the off-season for a three-year, $4.35 million contract — with only one NHL start for the team prior. He’s now coming up on his 28th birthday, and should be playing as well as he ever will… but what the team has seen from him so far this season has been less than stellar. Pickard ended up stepping in after only sixteen minutes of Berra in net against the Carolina Hurricanes (in which they scored three goals on ten shots) and ten minutes of Berra against the Arizona Coyotes (in which they scored three goals on eight shots). Pickard would then proceed to stop all shots against for the remainder of each game, allowing the Avalanche to pick up back-to-back wins in games where they allowed three goals in the opening period.

When Semyon Varlamov had originally been activated off injured reserve at the start of December, the franchise had sent Pickard back to Cleveland for extra development and play time — but now that Varlamov is back on the injury list, Berra has been practically stapled to his stool beside the team bench.

In the short run, this is probably the best option for the Avalanche — already sitting near the bottom of the league standings, they can’t afford many more losses without giving up hope of seeing the post-season altogether. With Berra carrying a pretty monstrous cap hit on a salary-crunched team for the next three seasons, though, it would do the Avalanche well to play him against weaker teams in hopes of elevating his trade value… and with Sidney Crosby and Beau Bennett seemingly giving half the Pittsburgh Penguins the mumps, this might be a game in which Berra is the smarter option.

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