Things are not going well for the Avalanche health-wise. After Milan Hejduk, Karlis Skrastins and Ian Laperriere sat out for lengthy spells early in the season, things just keep getting worse. Christmas isn't until next week, but it looks like Injury Santa brought the goods early this year.
Adrian Dater has a rundown of the bad news, and here's a brief AP report.
Joe Sakic skated Saturday but still felt considerable pain in his Super Groin, and hasn't skated since. Looks like his Christmas will be a frosty one---as in he'll be wearing ice packs on his junk for a while longer. Been there.
Kurt Sauer, originally diagnosed with a neck injury, apparently suffered a concussion instead and will have to take it easy until his brain stops being bruised.
Brad Richardson pulled a Skrastins and hurt his shoulder, and the Avs have now moved him from day-to-day status to the actual injured reserve list.
Tyler Arnason pulled a Leoprone and jacked up his wrist, which will require surgery and a lengthy absence from the lineup, much to the chagrin of opposing goalies, who had nothing to worry about whenever he was on the ice.
Jordan Leopold is just cursed.
And finally, Ryan Smyth woke up yesterday morning with an extremely sharp pain in his neck. Whether it's just a case of an awkward night's sleep or something worse (like a bad disk), nobody knows yet. Let's hope he just had a rotten hotel pillow.
Needless to say, Scott Parker is going to be getting a whole lot more ice time than he's probably used to.