The Colorado Avalanche will be without head coach Jared Bednar for their next two games, which are on the road.
Bednar was hit by a puck in the third period of Saturday night’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. At the time, the whole arena was concerned for Bednar’s wellbeing. It’s not everyday that you get hit by a puck, which is typically travelling a high miles per hour most of the time.
Bednar obviously did not return to the bench, and was eventually taken to the hospital. The report Sunday morning is that Bednar has facial fractures and a corneal abrasion. Without being a doctor, neither of those things sound good to me. Fractures are pretty straight-forward.
Apparently, ”a corneal abrasion is a scratch on, or an injury to, the surface of your cornea, the clear covering on your eye.”
The good news is that, per the Avalanche report on X, Bednar will not require surgery. Who knows how long he would have to miss if he did. Thankfully, Avs Faithful doesn’t have to worry about that.
Dave Hakstol and Nolan Pratt will come together and coach the team in Bednar’s absence. I was actually thinking about writing something regarding the potential fill-in for Bednar if it came down to it. Maybe the decision to have both Hakstol and Pratt jointly coaching the team will work out just fine.
The good news about this is the timing. The Avalanche don’t have anything to play for for the rest of the regular season. In fact, they just called up defenseman Jack Ahcan from the Colorado Eagles. Maybe Ahcan will be a seventh defenseman, or perhaps the Avalanche will sit somebody for at least one of the three remaining games.
Cale Makar has been out with an injury, but should be fine for the playoffs.
The focus for Pratt and Hakstol right now is to prepare the Avalanche for the next two games in Bednar’s absence. Hopefully the team remains healthy for the rest of the season, and the same goes for the postseason.
Overall, the Bednar update seems to be good news, and hopefully it stays that way. It could’ve been a lot worse, but you never want to see anything like that happen.
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