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Morning Flurries: Pavel Francouz has a new Colorado Avalanche mask!

and Denis Smirnov gets targeted with a dirty hit in the USNTDP

NHL: Colorado Avalanche at Tampa Bay Lightning
Oct 19, 2019; Tampa, FL, USA; Colorado Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz (39) is congratulated by left wing Andre Burakovsky (95) and teammates as they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Avs

The Colorado avalanche had their Halloween party on Wednesday night and shared their fun times from the holiday in this video. If you want to see everyones costumes, Arielle did an amazing job covering them all in yesterday’s Flurries. [Mile High Hockey]

Backup goalie Pavel Francouz is breaking in his new custom Avalanche mask during practice this week. What do you think?

The Prospects

Avs prospect Denis Smirnov got hit *hard* in last night’s USNTDP game. Fingers crossed that Denis is okay, Lauren will have more on this and Smirnov’s progress as a prospect in her prospect report on Monday.

The Game

Adam Boqvist will be the 16th player drafted in 2018 to make his NHL debut as he’s moved up from the AHL to the NHL at a lightning quick rate. Boqvist’s AHL career is likely only going to last six games at this rate. [Second City Hockey]

Boqvist, a right-handed shot, is known as an offensive-minded blue liner with strong skating skills and a quick wrister. He scored 20 goals and 60 points in 54 regular-season games last season with the London Knights in the OHL. The 6-foot, 181-pounder added 10 goals and 13 points in 11 playoff games.

The Washington Capitals had a lot of fun celebrating their city’s second championship in as many years. Even the team dog partied hard!

With the drama surrounding Dustin Byfuglien and the Winnipeg Jets, the team from Atlanta currently has more injury woes — this one more heartbreaking and terrifying than anything else. Get well soon, Mark Letestu. [Arctic Ice Hockey]

Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice revealed today that Mark Letestu is being shut down for a minimum of six months as he recovers from myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. It is not expected to affect Letestu’s long-term health, according to Maurice.

Here is the aforementioned Byfuglien drama. Apparently he had surgery this week without telling the team? [Arctic Ice Hockey]

Based on this recent news, on the Elisabeth Kubler Ross five stages of grief model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance), I’ve officially moved into the final stage, acceptance. I think it’s best for my sports fan mental health to accept that the Jets will play this season without Dustin Byfuglien.

John Klingberg had quite a progressive take for hockey standards when he saw Roman Polak injured on the ice at the beginning of the month. Don’t fight through the pain, that is stupid as heck. [Defending Big D]

Through the mysterious “upper-body” and “lower-body” injuries, there are a few that stand out. Usually, they’re the gruesome kinds. The kinds that leave an indelible mark in the psyche, that remind us that this is a dangerous game with sharp skates and surfaces that don’t give when a speeding object hits them at full force.

From The Athletic, stories about how players learned that they got traded!

Keeping with Bob McKenzie, Hockey’s First Insider will be taking a step back from his normal duties on TSN and NBC Sports following this season. Thank you, Bob, for an amazing and eye-opening 40 years. Long Live Bobby Margarita!

Bob followed this tweet with a few dozen anecdotes stemmed from questions he solicited while waiting for a flight. They are really cool and I’ve linked my highlights below: