Philipp Grubauer hurt again

BOSTON – The Colorado Avalanche likely will have to live life again for a while without their No. 1 goaltender, as Philipp Grubauer had to leave Saturday night’s game here at TD Garden in the first period with another lower-body injury.

The specifics of the injury remain private, but the worry is that he might have a recurring groin injury. For goaltenders, those types of injuries often require extensive rest and/or surgery to fix. It’s far too early to panic about surgery, and the coming days, with presumed imaging tests, should tell the full story.

Grubauer left the game right after being scored upon at 17:25 of the first period, then slammed his stick against the glass when skating off to the dressing room.

Grubauer was sidelined from Nov. 5-19 with a lower-body injury.

Pavel Francouz relieved Grubauer and will be the No. 1 guy until he can return. It’s likely that Adam Werner will be recalled should Grubauer need time off. Antoine Bibeau, who played two games when injuries struck both Grubauer and Francouz last month, just had season-ending surgery as a member of the Colorado Eagles.

Grubauer did return to the bench to start the second period. But he did not play.