The Colorado Avalanche announced today that forward Mikko Rantanen will be considered week to week, with a lower body injury, sustained during Monday night’s loss to the St. Louis Blues.
A lackluster performance on Monday night from the Colorado Avalanche resulted in the first regulation loss of the season. The dominate Colorado Avalanche squad that took down the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night were nowhere to be found two days later for game five of the six game road trip in St. Louis.
Less than one minute into the second period, forward Mikko Rantanen took an awkward spill to the ice and would not return for the remainder of the game.
The first loss in regulation of the season, combined with Rantanen’s injury, threw Colorado Avalanche fans into a full blown meltdown. With majority of the panic centering around the possibility of a season ending injury for Rantanen, emotions were running high when early reports speculated the possibility of a torn ACL/MCL.
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The Colorado Avalanche returned to practice today, after a much needed day off on Tuesday. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, JT Compher, Ian Cole and Mikko Rantanen were all absent from practice this morning which led to further concern among Avalanche fans.
After practice finally concluded, Coach Bednar informed the media that the official prognosis for winger Mikko Rantanen is week to week. When asked further about a possible timeline for Mikko’s return, Bednar was quoted, “Like, I can say, I don’t think it’s going to be a 4-6 week injury, I’ll give you that. We’re hoping it’s going to be significantly sooner than that.”
And, exhale. This is good news, right?
A week to week basis pretty much rules out a season ending injury like an ACL or MCL tear. Bednar remained silent on who would be replacing Rantanen on the top line and simply said no decision had been made yet and they were looking at a couple of guys.
One would assume Andre Burakovsky, who played on the top line in Rantanen’s absence during the preseason, would be the obvious choice. But Bednar seems to be taking his time on making any lineup decisions with the next game scheduled for Friday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Colorado Avalanche will play the second of two back to backs scheduled in October this Friday and Saturday, with Friday’s game being the last road game for the remainder of the month. The Colorado Avalanche will enter Friday’s game with a record of 7-1-1.