ST. LOUIS — Semyon Varlamov is struggling.
And that’s putting it nicely.
The veteran goalie was far from the Avalanche’s only problem Sunday afternoon in what turned out to be a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the St. Louis Blues here, but his horrible start to the season continued.
After Varlamov allowed five goals on 25 shots through two periods, first-year Avalanche coach Jared Bednar finally had seen enough and made his first in-game goaltending change of the season. He sent out Calvin Pickard — who had a 32-save shutout against Minnesota in Denver on Saturday — for the third period.