Josh Manson and Artturi Lehkonen are the latest in a long list of injuries ravaging the Avalanche’s lineup. Manson was announced as a week-to-week injury by coach Jared Bednar on Saturday, joining a list of injured skaters that includes Gabriel Landeskog, Darren Helm, Valeri Nichushkin, Bowen Byram, Shane Bowers, Kurtis MacDermid and Evan Rodrigues. Martin Kaut also missed his second consecutive game with an illness.
Things then went from bad to worse when top-line winger Artturi Lehkonen left with an upper-body injury.
Outside of Bowers, MacDermid and potentially Kaut, the rest are shoe-ins for a lineup spot on a fully healthy lineup.
Colorado called up defenseman Andreas Englund to replace Manson in a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. The Bruins improved to 14-0-0 on home ice while the Avs fell to 1-2-0 on a road trip where they’ve surrendered 14 goals in three games. This time it was back up Pavel Francouz in goal, who stopped 35 shots. Colorado was outshot 40-25.
The lone goal scorer for the Avalanche was forward Andrew Cogliano. His tally in the third period made it 3-1. Nearly 10 minutes later, the Bruins got insurance markers from Trent Frederic and Jake Debrusk 10 seconds apart to put the game out of reach.
Francouz and starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev has spent a majority of the early part of the season holding the fort down. While injuries have shaken the roster to its core, the goaltending has been among the best in the league. Both goalies, however, have had two consecutive challenging games.
For Francouz, it started with a disappointing 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at home on Nov. 23. He faced 25 shots and let four past him, including two in the third period where Colorado once led 3-2.
Georgiev’s last two games have included a victory thanks to the Avs’ top offensive studs. Georgiev and the Avalanche were shut out 5-0 in Winnipeg Tuesday despite outshooting the Jets 40-23. Georgiev had his worst performance of the season, making just 18 saves. And two nights later, it was followed up with a 6-4 Colorado win in Buffalo where Georgiev stopped 24-of-28 shots.
It’s hard to blame either goalie at this point. Colorado has uncharacteristically chased a number of games where Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar and Artturi Lehkonen haven’t had explosive offensive performances. And a large part of that is because of the injuries.
If Lehkonen misses any bit of time, Colorado could ice a roster in Philadelphia on Monday that is missing four of its top six forwards, two of its top-four defensemen and a depth forward in Helm.
Bednar didn’t have an update on Lehkonen following the loss.