Avalanche Gameday: Next Man Up With No Trenin

The Colorado Avalanche are used to the “next man up” mentality and have been all season. That won’t change for Game Six on Friday night.

Yakov Trenin, who left Game Five in the first period, will not be available to play for the Avalanche. He’s dealing with an upper-body injury, and it looked like it might have occurred right off the face-off here.

I think this face-off might be where Yakov Trenin's injury occurs. He took one shift after, but it was a short one. After this, he's on the bench in a lot of pain. pic.twitter.com/5Flxs0wYAC

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) May 16, 2024

“He’s on the shelf for tonight’s game,” Jared Bednar said after morning skate. “Still classify him as day-to-day, though.”

Based on what I saw at morning skate, which was very optional, expect Chris Wagner to enter the lineup in his place. He got off the ice with all of the other regulars. That’s hardly a surprise, as he’s a center and had playoff experience coming into this season. He played in Game One of this series and filled in admirably.

I know some on the internet want the Avalanche to throw Gabriel Landeskog into the lineup, if only to sit on the bench and be an extra coach, but that seems unlikely. Landeskog did not skate this morning.

Having to throw in another body is something the organization is used to at this point.

“Done it all year,” Miles Wood said. “There was a rare opportunity where we had a full lineup in. At the end of the day, it’s just about the guys in the room and tryin got win a hockey game.”

Colorado losing Trenin hurts the center depth, but it’s not nearly as big as loss as what Dallas is dealing with. They’ll be without Roope Hintz again, which might be equivalent to the Avalanche having to play without Valeri Nichushkin. He’s handles a lot of tough matchups for the Stars, and while Radek Faksa is a decent player, he doesn’t come close to matching what Hintz can do. Colorado took advantage of Hintz not being there in Game Five, and will look to do it again.

Other News And Notes

• I’m not sure it really matters who replaces Trenin. I’d expect Wagner to play minimal minutes. The Avalanche will, once again, turn to Nathan MacKinnon and company to keep this train rolling. Just like Cale Makar in Game Five, the Avalanche will need a star to take over. I feel like we have to see a lot more out of Mikko Rantanen.
• It didn’t sound like the Stars would make any other lineup changes. Tyler Seguin was on the ice for morning skate after leaving at the end of last game.