Matt Duchene took part in the Avalanche's full practice Thursday, stayed on the ice for a half hour after the official session ended and said he'll play Friday against Washington at the Pepsi Center.
Duchene, who leads the team in scoring with 29 goals and 56 points, missed six games after sustaining a knee injury in a March 16 game in Vancouver.
Coach Patrick Roy wasn't as emphatic about Duchene's return, saying: "There's a good chance he'll play. I haven't talked to Matt or to the team doctors, but the chances that he'll play tomorrow are pretty big."
Roy said Nathan MacKinnon has yet to skate since he hurt his knee March 18 in Calgary. MacKinnon is the Avalanche's second leading scorer with 21 goals and 52 points.
Assuming Duchene plays, Roy said he'll skate with Mikkel Boedker and Mikhail Grigorenko. "I feel good," Duchene said. "I skated hard the last four days -- five days now -- and I think I'm ready to go. I'm hoping that I can make a difference. I feel comfortable and healthy enough, the doctors feel good and the trainers feel good, so I'm ready to go."
Duchene said he believes he can play his usual game without worrying about getting re-injured.
"I definitely think so," he said. "Practice was great. To get out there and skate the rust off a bit more ... I was pretty rusty (Wednesday) but today I felt a lot better. I felt like I can get back to where I left off."
Duchene said he never considered shutting it down for the rest of the season, regardless of the Avalanche's slim chances of making the playoffs. They were five points behind Minnesota with five games left before the Wild played Ottawa on Thursday night.
"I wanted to come back and play," he said. "I wanted to come back and have some closure on the season."
Duchene said he finished the game against the Canucks and didn't realize he was injured until after entering the locker room.
"It was kind of a weird injury, one you don't see ever in hockey," he said without going into details. "I didn't feel it, thought I was fine. I went to walk into my stall after the game and I put the brakes on and I started to get dressed and I felt it kind of wiggle a little bit and feel weird. I knew something was wrong. I've (injured) my knees a few times, so I know when there's something wrong."
Duchene said he absorbed a hit with about 13 minutes left in the game.
"I was right by their bench and I was going by a guy and he was a little out of position and he lunged at me," he said. "I got by him, but I caught a little bit of my left edge and kind of just went over. At the time, I thought I was lucky to escape injury, but after the game in fact I was injured.
"It was a big fluke, it could have been a lot worse. I'm very blessed that it wasn't and I'm very happy to play again for at least the last five (games) and hopefully into the playoffs if we make a run here and get in."
The Avalanche have gone 3-3 without Duchene. They've lost three of the past four games without him, MacKinnon and defenseman Eric Gelinas, who sustained an elbow injury in Calgary.
"It's been horrible to sit out," he said. "The boys have been playing well, have played their butts off every night, worked hard. The three of us have been rooting them on hard. It's a helpless feeling being hurt. You want to be out there so bad. You feel maybe at one point in a game you could make a difference and you're just not physically able to do it."