Darcy Kuemper out with upper-body injury

It definitely wouldn’t be a full day with the Avalanche without there being some sudden, shocking new injury to a key player. On the day Nathan MacKinnon returned from an eight-game absence, starting goalie Darcy Kuemper was announced as a late scratch tonight by the Avs in Toronto.

Jonas Johansson started the game for Colorado, and the backup for him is a man named Jett Alexander. He’s the local, emergency fill-in guy should anything happen to JoJo in the game tonight.

Earlier in the day, the Avs recalled Justus Annunen from the Colorado Eagles, so they obviously knew earlier in the afternoon that something was wrong with Kuemper. The injury to Kuemper is listed as to the upper body. His last couple of injuries in his career, including one that kept him out a while last season in Arizona, was a lower-body injury.

So, maybe there’s a glimmer of news to be thankful for there when it comes to Kemps.

Annunen, by the way, was named the AHL’s goalie of the month for November, with a 5-1-2 record, 1.83 GAA and .937 saves percentage. Kuemper took part in the morning skate today and was listed by the Avs as the starting goalie.

Alas, something went wrong after that. I’ll be working the phones to learn what I can on this.