Colorado Avalanche Using Injury-Prone Roster in Edmonton

The Colorado Avalanche are forced to use an injury-prone roster as they face the Oilers in Edmonton. Can they pull out another win?

Remember the Colorado Avalanche’s golden Why Not Us year when then-coach Patrick Roy would indulge in a bit of drama by coming out for pressers with a list of injured players in his hand and feign the need to read it as he listed said players? Also remember he didn’t do that the second year when the Avs were second only to the Blue Jackets in number of man games lost to injury?

He wouldn’t be using that list right now. There would be no need for a dramatic flair.

The only reason for the trip down memory lane is to laugh instead of cry. The Avs are an injury-prone team this season, and it’s not the small potatoes guys getting taken out.

Here’s our list of injured players:

Mikko Rantanen: LBI, not on trip
Gabriel Landeskog: LBI, not on trip
Colin Wilson: unspecified, not on trip
Nikita Zadorov: broken jaw, not on trip
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare: in concussion protocol, on trip
Philipp Grubauer: unspecified, on trip
Pavel Francouz: head injury, on trip because he was just injured

Meanwhile, both Tyson Jost and Nazem Kadri suffered relatively minor injuries in the Winnipeg game. Kadri experience a weird Mikko-like event and left the game late in the third, but Adrian Dater’s sources report he’s fine. Jost suffered 90’s-style retribution for daring to touch the Winnipeg goalie and left the game gushing blood from his nose.

Apparently he’s fine, too:

This is it. The only #content we need from practice today.#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/FHnSzXv14v
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) November 13, 2019

You can see some cotton stuffed up his nose, and a scrape on his cheek, but he participated fully in practice.

But the loss of Francouz in the opening seconds of the game is what cut. Colorado is already without its starting goalie, and now our backup has been put on injured reserve.

What did we do to earn such bad luck?

Well, as you know, the Avs are coming off a win in Winnipeg. Even with all the injuries, they’ve managed to string together three wins in a row. They’re on a tough road trip — five games in two weeks. I opined that I’d be satisfied with .500 hockey, or five points out of the 10 available.

Hopefully, they can get two more, or at least one, tonight. Let’s look at a couple keys to that end.

Tightened Defense

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Toward the end of the Winnipeg game, even with the Colorado Avalanche up 3-0, I found myself yelling at the television screen for the team to stop turning over the pucks. Turnovers happen across both forwards and defensemen, but it’s our blueline that’s relatively healthy.

Yet the Avs d-men were responsible for six turnovers in the Winnipeg game. That’s not a huge number, but several of them led directly to scoring chances. It was only by virtue of Adam Werner inexplicably earning a 40-save shutout in his NHL debut that those turnovers weren’t costly.

Secondary Scoring

In the Colorado Avalanche’s win over the Winnipeg Jets, Colorado’s top line, plus Cale Makar (our prize rookie) accounted for all but two of the 12 points awarded. It is so good to see our stars and other first liners stepping up. (Yes, I’m including Joonas Donskoi and Matt Calvert in that group because they’re skating on the top line.)

Well, I get that the Avs’ depth has been decimated, but we still need to see some secondary scoring beyond our two stars and the two guys skating alongside them. We need another hero.

Or two or three. Hell, Francouz tried for the empty net goal. Why shouldn’t Werner do the same. Oh, and by the way, out new backup goalie is the Eagles injured goalie, Antoine Bibeau.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: Nov. 14, 7:00 pm MT
TV: ALT, SNW (Oilers’ feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (AM 950)

Tonight marks the first of three meetings between the two teams. Last year, the Colorado Avalanche won the series 2-1.