Andrew Cogliano Overcomes A Scare, Valeri Nichushkin A Scratch In Suomi

Andrew Cogliano appeared to suffer an injury to the head in the first period of today’s game in Suomi (that’s Finland) after taking a hit from 6-foot-3, 226-pound defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. Cogliano stayed down several seconds, then went straight to the dressing room.

But, good news: Cogs was back on the ice to start the second period.

Gavrikov was assessed a minor penalty for interference on the hit. It’s possible he could face some supplementary discipline from the league, though it appeared it might have been a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on at least one angle. I doubt anything will happen now, now that Cogs is back.

The already-short-handed Avalanche also were without the services of Valeri Nichushkin in the game. He took the pregame warmup, but was a scratch when it was time to submit the official lineup sheet.

The Avalanche are up 2-0 after the period, on goals from Logan O’Connor and J.T. Compher.

These were the lines to start the game:

Rodrigues-MacKinnon-Rantanen

Lehkonen-Compher-Kaut

Cogliano-Newhook-O’Connor

Maltsev-Hunt-MacDonald

Toews-Makar

Byram-Manson

Girard-Johnson

Georgiev

A certain former Avalanche player is at the game:

Cheers to an @Avalanche win! #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/10pyMLcgAV

— 🏒 adrienne – #StandWithNaz 🏒 (@guffychan) November 4, 2022

Peter the Great. #Avs #Raid22 pic.twitter.com/2OlIKh65cy

— Eurolanche in Tampere! 🇫🇮 (@Eurolanche) November 4, 2022