The news just keeps getting better and better for the Avalanche, doesn't it?
Two more forwards, leading goal scorer Alex Tanguay and rookie Dennis Everberg, sustained serious injuries Thursday in the Avalanche's 3-2 loss to Washington, bringing the number of injured players to eight.
Tanguay has what coach Patrick Roy said Friday is a facial fracture but not a broken jaw and Everberg has a separated shoulder. Tanguay was hurt in the second period when he was hit with a puck shot by Alex Ovechkin. Everberg was hurt in a third-period collision with Tom Wilson.
Roy said Tanguay, who turned 35 Friday -- happy birthday -- won't play Saturday against Carolina when the Avalanche finishes a two-game homestand. It isn't certain how long he'll be sidelined. Roy said Everberg "will be out for a while."
Tanguay, who was limited to 16 games last season because of knee and hip injuries, has a team-leading seven goals to go along with four assists in 20 games. Everberg has one goal and three assists in 13 games. He played Thursday because Jamie McGinn has a back injury.
The Avalanche was down to 10 healthy forwards and summoned Andrew Agozzino, Ben Street and Tomas Vincour from their AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters. Agozzino had three goals and five assists in 14 games, Street one goal and one assist in four games, and Vincour one goal and one assist in three games.
Aside from the injuries to Everberg, McGinn and Tanguay, Patrick Bordeleau (back surgery) and Jesse Winchester (concussion) have yet to play in a regular-season game.
Defenseman Ryan Wilson had season-ending shoulder surgery this week, defenseman Brad Stuart has missed six games with a hamstring injury and goalie Semyon Varlamov will miss his second game in a row Saturday because of a groin injury, so Reto Berra will start against the Hurricanes.
The Avalanche have fallen into last place again in the Central Division with a 6-9-5 record, in part because they have scored two goals or fewer in 12 of the first 20 games.
It's long past due for high-priced forwards like Jarome Iginla, Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O'Reilly to start shouldering a lot more of the offensive load.
Iginla, who is 37 and in the first year of a three-year, $16 million contract, has two goals and eight assists in 20 games. Both goals came Oct. 24 in a 7-3 rout of Vancouver. He has no goals and three assists in the past 12 games.
Landeskog, in the first year of a seven-year, $39 million contract extension, has four goals and four assists in 20 games and a minus-10 plus/minus rating. He has no goals and four assists in the past 10 games.
O'Reilly, who is in the first year of a two-year, $12 million deal after scoring a career-high 24 goals last season, also has two goals and eight assists in 20 games. He has no goals and two assists in the past eight games and owns a minus-11 rating for the season.