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Burakovsky, Francouz are injured; Johnson to make season debut

January 19, 2021, 4:52 PM ET [0 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Well, that didn’t take long.

After playing just two games, two players -- forward Andre Burakovsky and goalie Pavel Francouz -- are injured and won’t dress Tuesday when the Avalanche play Los Angeles to open a four-game road trip.

Weird because Burakovsky, who has an upper-body injury, spoke on a Zoom call Monday and said he was looking forward to the trip after collecting two goals and an assist in two games. Francouz, who has a lower-body injury, has yet to play. Both traveled with the team.

Hunter Miska was called up from the taxi squad and will be the backup.

Here are the GAME NOTES.

The Avalanche will go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, with Erik Johnson making his season debut after two team practices and a morning skate. He missed camp while quarantined after testing positive for COVID-19.

“Frankie left practice on the day we were leaving on the plane,” Bednar said. “Burky’s injury happened in practice too, but he has something that’s nagging him. I don’t know if it’s just for tonight or if it’s going to be longer than that. We’ll see as the trainers get me information every day.”

Philipp Grubauer will make his third start. He’s coming off a 21-save 8-0 win against St. Louis on Friday. He has a 2-2-0 career record against the Kings with one shutout, a 1.50 goals-against average and .951 save percentage.

The lineup:

FORWARDS:
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Saad -- Nazem Kadri -- Joonas Donoskoi
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Valeri Nichushkin
Matt Calvert -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

DEFENSE:
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Ryan Graves -- Samuel Girard
Ian Cole -- Conor Timmins
Erik Johnson

GOALIES:
Philipp Grubauer
Hunter Miska

Injured: Andre Burakovsky (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body)

Taxi squad: Bowen Byram, Dennis Gilbert, Martin Kaut, Kiefer Sherwood, Adam Werner



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