Mikko Rantanen will miss his third game in a row Wednesday when the Avalanche play Vegas at the Pepsi Center.
Rantanen, the team’s second-leading scorer with 31 goals and 87 points, wasn’t on the ice Tuesday for practice and coach Jared Bednar didn’t have much of an update, other than to say the right wing is “making progress… from what is being called an upper-body injury.
Captain Gabriel Landeskog, third on the Avalanche with 33 goals and 69 points, will miss his ninth consecutive game with a shoulder injury, but he practiced while wearing a non-contact jersey and shot some pucks. “He’s making progress, for sure,… Bednar said of Landeskog. “He’s feeling better every day. Every day the more he does, you have to see how he feels the next morning and then we make decisions based on how he's feeling. But he hasn't taken contact yet.…
Forward Matt Nieto and defenseman Mark Barberio have been cleared to play after missing 15 and 27 games, respectively. Nieto sustained a foot injury when he blocked a shot Feb. 22 at Chicago and will play against the Golden Knights. Barberio has been out since sustaining a lower-body injury Jan. 21 against Nashville.
“Originally it was 6-8 weeks and now I’m coming up to 4 1-2,… said Nieto, who has four goals and 22 assists in 58 games. “At the beginning it was healing pretty slow. Once all the swelling went down, I got my flexion and range of motion back and then I stepped on the ice and felt great.
“The last three days I’ve been going really hard with (skills coach) Shawn (Allard), which is really hard stuff, and it’s held up fine and it felt good at practice today. Really excited. It’s going to be fun hockey to play. The boys are playing great.…
The Avalanche have gone 4-0-1 in the past five games, 5-2-1 without Landeskog and 1-0-1 without Rantanen.
They have a two-point lead over Arizona and Minnesota in the race for the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference with six games to go. Arizona was home to Chicago, which is five points behind, on Tuesday night.
“Mikko’s one of the best wingers in the NHL and Gabe is one of the best two-way players in the NHL,… Nathan MacKinnon said. “You lose two guys like that, it’s going to hurt your team. We’ve weathered the storm since those guys have been hurt and we have a tough schedule coming up. It’s going to be tough.…