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Colorado Avalanche have new coach, new attitude

When Francois Beauchemin answered his phone Aug. 11 and heard who was on the other end of the call, he knew it wasn’t good.

His intuition was right. Patrick Roy was calling to say he was no longer the coach of the Colorado Avalanche.

“Naturally, I was shocked,” said Beauchemin, a 36-year-old defenseman. “Everyone was disappointed with the way we played last year, but nobody expected this to happen.”

Colorado quickly hired Jared Bednar to turn around the sinking franchise, even though Bednar had no NHL head coaching experience. But the Avalanche, who are in Las Vegas on Saturday to play the Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena in their annual Frozen Fury NHL preseason game, are 5-0 in exhibition play, and everything is going well with the transition.

“He’s been great,” Beauchemin said of Bednar, 44, who won the Calder Cup with Lake Erie of the American Hockey League last year and has a Kelly Cup ring after leading South Carolina to the ECHL title in 2009.

“He tells you what your job is, and all he expects is for you to do your job. The practices are fast, high-tempo, a lot of game situations. I think all the guys are happy with him.”

Beauchemin has a Stanley Cup ring from his time with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. The 14-year NHL veteran can be a source of information for Colorado’s young players, and he said he doesn’t need to be vocal to be a locker room leader.

“I try to lead by example and work hard, both on and off the ice,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of talented guys on our team, and we just have to let them develop and continue to grow as players.”

The Avalanche went 39-39-4 last season and missed the playoffs. The 82 points from 2015-16 was a significant drop-off from two years before when Colorado had 112 points.

“We played good at times but not for long enough,” he said. “We need to shorten the bad stretches and lengthen the good ones to get back to where we want to be.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow on Twitter: @stevecarprj

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