Grimaldi Gets His Chance With The Avalanche

Rocco Grimaldi is a self-proclaimed pest, and that's a good thing for the Colorado Avalanche.
"I have been that way my whole career," said Grimaldi, who stands at 5-foot-6 and 180 pounds. "I've always been the shortest guy on every team I've ever been on, so I'm not going to go in and make huge hits or anything like that. I just want to be annoying to play against."

The 23-year-old forward is the bug that just doesn't go away.
"Obviously, when you're outside and outdoors and you have those little bugs, pests going around you, it's annoying and it's kind of how I try and play. I want to be hard on the forecheck and never give up. Even if they might beat me out of the corner, or whatever it is, that I'm still there, I'm still on them. I know how annoying it is to play against. You think you have a guy beat and then he's still there."
Grimaldi, who was called up from the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League Friday afternoon, will bring those pest-like abilities to the Avalanche when he makes his season debut tonight against the Dallas Stars.
The Anaheim, California, native will also get a nice opportunity to log some important minutes, as he'll play right wing on a top-six line with Matt Duchene and Mikhail Grigorenko.
"He's a tenacious guy on the puck, like he's a real quick guy in small areas," said Avs head coach Jared Bednar of his new forward. "He's dirty. He's tenacious. He's getting production and having success down [in San Antonio] because he wants to be around the puck; he wants to stay on it, and that's kind of his M.O. We need a little bit of that. We need some guys that are going to get on the puck and stay on it and be relentless on it. Playing on that line, that line has the ability to possess the puck. You know how Matt Duchene can handle it down low in traffic and whatnot, and I think he's another guy that can get in and out of holes and help with the speed of that line."

Grimaldi said his speed and skill should work well with that of Duchene and Grigorenko's.
"For me to just be there and try to push the tempo and push the pace is going to be great," he said. "Duchene is one of the fastest guys in the league, and Grigo and him are both two of the most skilled guys I've ever seen. I'm just going out there, try and have a little chemistry with them, work hard and go in the corners and do what I do."
Grimaldi is getting a fresh start with a new organization after spending the past two seasons with the Florida Panthers. He was a second-round selection (No. 33 overall) of Florida in the 2011 NHL Draft before playing four years of college hockey at the University of North Dakota.
He had two successful campaigns with the Panthers' AHL affiliates and appeared in 20 NHL games last year with Florida, even seeing action in two Stanley Cup Playoffs contests. Grimaldi has six points (two goals and four assists) in 27 career NHL game but noted that he was too concerned with things that he didn't control during his stints in South Florida.
"Especially in the first couple call-ups I had last year, I was too worried about making mistakes; 'Are they going to send me down because I did something wrong?'" Grimaldi said of his thought process. "The last call-up, I thought I just played my game, sat back and relaxed and I was rewarded with more opportunities and was able to score a bit more."
The Avs acquired Grimaldi on June 23 in a trade just prior to this past summer's NHL Draft, and the center has had a solid start with the organization. He had a strong showing in training camp and that's translated into early-season success with the Rampage, where he leads the team in scoring with 15 points (six goals and nine assists) in 19 games.
He said he's coming into his first stint in Colorado with a more open mind and to just play the game he's known for.
"It's human nature for me to work hard, so I just got to go in and do the best I can and not think about any of the outside factors," Grimaldi said. "I tended to let that effect me the last couple years in Florida when I would go up. So this year, just play with an open mind and free mind and it should be good."

LANDESKOG GOING ON TRIP

Head coach Jared Bednar offered up some positive news Saturday morning regarding the health of injured Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog, announcing the team captain could possibly go on the upcoming four-game road trip.
"He's been working in the gym the last couple of days," Bednar said. "He's been progressing, so he feels better again today. He skated lightly on his own for just a few minutes, and that seemed to go well.
"I would expect that he is a guy that will continue to move forward and probably be on the road trip."

Bednar wasn't about to say if Landeskog would play in any of the games in Nashville, Boston, Montreal or Toronto, but that starting to skate again was enough of a reason to take him along.
"If he wasn't able to join our group and skate and get him to practice, then he wouldn't come," Bednar said. "So we're hopeful that is what it's going to progress. We'll check and see tomorrow."
Landeskog will miss his eighth-straight contest this evening because of a lower-body injury. He last played Nov. 15 against the Los Angeles Kings.

STRONG AT THE DOT

Faceoffs continue to be a strength for the Avalanche this year, and the squad is coming off one of its best games ever in the circle.
Colorado won 73.6 percent of its faceoffs on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the second-highest single-game faceoff percentage in Avalanche history. The Avs' best contest at the dot was on Dec. 23, 2011, against the Tampa Bay Lightning when they won 74.1 percent of their draws. The league began tracking the statistic in 1999-00.
The Avalanche ranks second in the NHL in faceoff percentage at 53.4 percent and is the top team in wins in the offensive zone at 57 percent. Colorado hasn't won less than 60 percent of its total draws over its last three games, winning 60 percent last Saturday versus Vancouver, 61 percent versus Nashville on Tuesday and then the 73.6-percent effort on Thursday against Columbus.
Matt Duchene leads the Avalanche in the category with a 60.3-percent success rate (184-of-295).
Dallas is the 16th-best team in faceoffs with a 49.4 percent success rate this year, but the Stars are better in the offensive end where they rank fifth in the NHL (54.1 percent).

PROJECTED LINEUP

Mikko Rantanen - Nathan MacKinnon - Rene Bourque
Mikhail Grigorenko - Matt Duchene - Rocco Grimaldi
Blake Comeau - John Mitchell - Jarome Iginla
Joe Colborne - Carl Soderberg - Andreas Martinsen
Fedor Tyutin - Erik Johnson
Patrick Wiercioch - Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov - Francois Beauchemin
Semyon Varlamov
Calvin Pickard