Valeri Nichushkin And Bo Byram Out With New Injuries

There were murmurs this morning that there might be new injuries with the Colorado Avalanche to announce. Unfortunately, the murmurs had meat to them: Valeri Nichushkin and Bo Byram are both injured with ailments that will stretch into weeks, not days, and Sam Girard is also out day-to-day with something.

Avalanche Practice Notes

• Nichushkin will be out about a month according to coach Bednar after having ankle surgery. This injury is not related to the one he had during the Stanley Cup Finals. In Finland, he took warmup on the first game, but was seen looking at his foot with the trainers and never played in the two games.
• Byram is out and is declared week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
• Girard is out with a lower body injury and is declared as day-to-day.
• This is obviously going to test the Avalanche’s depth further. Who might the Avalanche recall from the Eagles to play, in place of Byram and maybe Girard? My money is on veteran Brad Hunt, but we’ll see. This Nichushkin setback gives even more of an opportunity to Martin Kaut to prove himself, probably.
• The reassignment of Mikhail Maltsev and Kaut were for cap purposes, Bednar said. Expect some more recalls either Wednesday or Thursday to fill some gaps. The Colorado Eagles play tonight and tomorrow, so it’ll be interesting to see what roster moves they make themselves.
• Gabriel Landeskog continues to pace for the three-month return.
• Darren Helm has no estimated return time, but “it will be sooner rather than later,” Bednar said.

Coach Bednar

Bednar when he was asked about the passing of Peter McNab, “To me, he is a guy that deserved a lot of respect.” He went on for about five minutes about how he thought McNab was a great man. Bednar mentioned that “I talked to him a lot that first year because it was a tough year for me.”

Mikko Rantanen

I had a chance to talk to Mikko Rantanan briefly in the locker room today. when asked if he had any family there at the games in Finland, “I had about fifty friends and family there including my dad. It was fantastic.”

Following up on the hat trick and the crowd cheering, “It was unbelievable. You never expect to hear those things. It was kind of a funny moment, I got chills from it. The guys were all looking at me and all 12,000 people were singing my name, it was a cool moment. I got the chills from it.”

On playing tour guide for the week: “It was fun taking the guys to sauna and taking them to eat traditional Finnish reindeer. That was the best part.”

The Avalanche will be back at a full practice tomorrow at 11am at the Family Sports Center. A decent number of guys were out there today, including Andrew Cogliano, whose hand had us worried for a bit there, but he’s a tough customer.