After the morning skate, Avalanche coach Patrick Roy confirmed that Semyon Varlamov would be start in the Colorado net Monday night against the Los Angeles Kings at the Pepsi Center.

The decision wasn’t surprising.

But when Roy pulled Varlamov midway through the second period after he allowed four goals on 19 shots against Calgary and Calvin Pickard shut out the Flames the rest of the way in a 4-0 loss, it at least raised the question of whether Roy would consider giving Pickard his second start of the season against the Kings.

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“Varly played well,” Roy said. “He didn’t play as well against Toronto (Dec. 21), but he was really good in the other games. If not for him against Chicago in the second period, we could have been three or four goals behind. Even in the (Calgary) game, I thought he was not responsible for goals. We just had a hard time (picking) up guys in front of the net. They were perfect tips, under the bar, post and in. He certainly wasn’t responsible for that game.”

Roy added that Pickard likely wouldn’t get a start in the remainder of the homestand or at Chicago Sunday.

“The reason why I pulled Varly was that we had a lot of games coming up. There was no need for him to stay there. I wanted him to be back against L.A. tonight and probably play against St. Louis, Nashville and Chicago and from there we’ll make a decision.”

The Avalanche didn’t practice Sunday, and at the morning skate, Roy again tinkered with his lines, reuniting Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene, with Andreas Martinsen on the left side. In a month, the rookie Norwegian — Martinsen — has gone from healthy scratches at New York and Minnesota to being on the Avalanche top line. Gabe Landeskog will be with Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau, Mikhail Grigorenko will center Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay and John Mitchell will be between Jack Skille and Cody McLeod on the fourth line.

“I guess they had good moments together,” Roy said of MacKinnon and Duchene. “I just feel that gives me flexibility to give them more ice time. They played well in the World Championships together, they played well when they were together. Landy’s playing well with Carl and Blake, and that gives us two good lines. I want to give a shot to Grigorenko to see what he can do and it’s a good situation for him to be with Jarome and Alex and we’ll see. Remember, early in the season, Mitchell played really well with Skille and McLeod. We’ll try this scenario for a bit.”

Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei