Avs Center John Mitchell Not Afraid To Take A Slash

DENVER (CBS4) - The Colorado Avalanche are struggling, but they'd be in even worse shape without newcomers P.A. Parenteau who has seven goals and John Mitchell who has four. They've combined for 11 of the Avs' 21 goals.

Scoring goals isn't really Mitchell's game. He's one of those hard working hockey players who doesn't mind doing the dirty work around the net and in the corners, and most would agree the guy looks like a hockey player.

Mitchell has taken a beating the first few weeks of the season. Most recently he was hit in the face with a puck.

"I had a tough couple; first three games I think I got hit in the face," Mitchell said. "Hopefully that was the end of it. I've got a visor on now, so protect the eyes a little bit more."

But every time he was taken off the ice to get stitched up he would come back out on the ice and score a goal. It's not too bad of a trade off.

"It is nice to obviously score, but obviously my face is a little mangled and obviously probably will be for the rest of my life," Mitchell said. "But that's the game of hockey, right? You get stitches, you get bumps and bruises."

Having a terrific start was just how Mitchell wanted to begin with his new team.

"I think when you come to a new team, every year it doesn't matter where you go; you obviously want to come in and show your teammates, coaches and staff that you're a player and you came here for a reason," he said. "I'm just trying to go out there and play hard and things have been good for me."

Now that the team has come on some hard times, Mitchell said sometimes players try a little too hard.

"Guys try to do a little too much," he said. "We've just got to settle things down. We've got a couple days here where we can practice and work on our systems and I think we'll be just fine."