Morning Flurries: Still fighting the injury bug

While the Colorado Avalanche active roster flew home from Southern California yesterday, those that stayed home from the trip all hit the ice at the practice facility. Yes that’s Cale Makar, Nazem Kadri, Mikko Rantanen, Matt Calvert and Philipp Grubauer. Working more limited on his own was Andre Burakovsky and Colin Wilson is still absent.

More will be known after morning skate today prior to hosting the New York Rangers as these players have yet to practice full contact or with the rest of the team but a good sign they are getting closer. Furthermore, news will also be revealed about Nathan MacKinnon who needed further evaluation on the lower body injury he exited the game with on Monday night in LA. Some reinforcements are expected back because Sheldon Dries was assigned back to the Colorado Eagles. However Martin Kaut was recalled again this morning.

It’s not just the Avalanche dealing with an injury crisis. Pierre LeBrun details at The Athletic that the compressed schedule from the lengthy January bye week and dates light in the fall has become a problem and a contributing factor.

“Just look at the injuries over the past month around the NHL. You can’t tell me that it doesn’t correlate with the jammed-packed schedule. Last night, Nathan MacKinnon, who was playing in his 20th game in the past 38 days, was forced to leave their game against the Kings.”

In happier news, the Avalanche are planning to honor Colorado Rockies legend Larry Walker before Sunday’s game.

Sometimes the game of hockey just makes you smile.