from Nick Groke of All Things Avs,

The Avalanche on Sunday dropped rookie goalie Calvin Pickard back to the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters. It was an expected move — Colorado coach Patrick Roy had said it was coming at some point. But it still caused some consternation....

But Pickard’s rise did raise some serious questions — mainly about Colorado’s backup goalie Reto Berra. It was (maybe is) a legitimate goalie controversy.

The Avs reached to get Berra at last season’s trade deadline, then gave him a three-year, $4.35-million contract extension nine days later....

And Roy on Sunday was not treating Berra with kid gloves.

“Unfortunately, this is the business we’re in,” Roy said. “We’re in the business where we need to win hockey games. There was a guy (Pickard) who came in and played hard for us. (Berra) is lucky today that Pickard is not 25- or 26-years-old.”

What Roy means, it seems, is that if Pickard were already further along in his development and making a bigger salary, that Berra might have been replaced by Pickard. Instead, Roy and Sakic decided that Pickard needed the regularity of games in the AHL instead of the bench spot Berra occupies.

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