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Injuries continue to pile up |
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Rick Sadowski
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The never-ending story for the Avalanche this season: the ridiculous number of injuries that continue to pile up, injuries to key players.
Goalie Philipp Grubauer, who earlier missed five games with a lower-body injury, was injured again late in the first period Saturday in the Avalanche’s 4-1 win in Boston.
Early in the third period, star rookie defenseman Cale Makar left after taking a hit from Bruins forward Brad Marchand.
Coach Jared Bednar didn’t have an update on either player after the game. The Avalanche were off Sunday after sweeping the three-game road trip, so we hope to receive official word at the morning skate Monday before the Calgary game.
Forward T.J. Tynan was placed on waivers; presumably, he needs to clear in order to assign him to the Colorado Eagles.
That could mean a number of things:
* The Avalanche need to clear roster space to recall a goalie to replace Grubauer and/or a defenseman to replace Makar.
* Nazem Kadri is ready to play after missing the past two games with a lower-body injury.
* Matt Calvert is ready to return after missing the game in Boston to take care of a family matter.
Meanwhile, the rumor mill regarding a possible trade for New Jersey forward Taylor Hall has been churning for a while now. The Devils, coincidentally, will be at the Pepsi Center on Friday.
The Devils are likely to deal the former Hart Trophy winner at some point, but, as good as he is, the Avalanche have a really good thing going now -- even with all the injuries -- so why mess with team chemistry?
Anyway, despite the injuries, the Avalanche have won a season-best six games in a row and are 11-3-0 in the past 14 games.
Few teams could withstand losing the likes of Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Erik Johnson for a significant amount of time, and Colorado also withstood the absence of Grubauer, Ian Cole, Pavel Francouz, Colin Wilson and Nikita Zadorov.
Kudos to Bednar and his assistants for getting this team to continue to play at a high level, along with the players -– including the call-ups from the Eagles -– who have filled in to keep things rolling.
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