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Deen’s Daily: Lehkonen Aiming For Tuesday Debut; Liljegren Traded to San Jose; Islanders Shutout Again

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Coming off a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, where the Avalanche were missing six of their top 10 forwards, head coach Jared Bednar provided a little bit of good news on the injury front.



Artturi Lehkonen, who has not yet played this season, is aiming to return on Tuesday. Lehkonen had a scheduled appointment with team doctors this week and looks to be cleared to begin taking contact over the next few days. The Avalanche travel to Nashville for a road game against the Predators before hosting the Kraken Tuesday. It’s unclear at this time if Lehkonen will make the trip, even if he isn’t expected to play.

Cale Makar had a goal and an assist against the Lightning, which puts him at 19 points — the most in the NHL. Makar and teammate Nathan MacKinnon are both on season-opening 11-game point streaks. For Makar, it’s one step closer to making history.

Around The NHL

San Jose Hockey Now: The San Jose Sharks acquired another defenseman, trading for Timothy Liljegren. In return, they sent the Toronto Maple Leafs a third-round pick, a sixth-round pick, and veteran defenseman Matt Benning. The deal makes sense for both sides. For the Leafs, it clears $3 million in cap space for a player who lost his spot in the top four and even in the top six on Toronto’s blueline. The Leafs are yearning for cap space as they prepare to eventually activate Calle Jarnkrok, Jani Hakanpaa, and Connor Dewar.

The Sharks on the other hand have a bevy of draft assets and continue to add pieces that other teams are offloading. Liljegren is young and could still end up being a valuable top-four defenseman. It just wasn’t going to happen in Toronto. With the Sharks, he’ll have more of an opportunity to find his fit.

NYI Hockey Now: The Islanders have played 10 games this season. They’ve only won three — one of which was against the Avalanche.

In their seven combined regulation and OT losses, the Islanders have been shut out four times. The latest came on Wednesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets — a 2-0 loss against goalie Elvis Merzlikins. You have to imagine that Lou Lamoriello is going to make a move to shake up his roster at some point.

Detroit Hockey Now: Another brutal loss for the Detroit Red Wings, falling 6-2 to the NHL’s best Winnipeg Jets. The Wings don’t have quite the same jump they had last year, especially when they were fighting for a playoff spot around the trade deadline. And their losses this season haven’t inspired much confidence. This is purely speculation, but you have to wonder if these are the types of losses that could eventually lead to Derek Lalonde getting fired. The Jets led 3-0 pretty quickly in this one. Detroit is 4-5-1 to start the season.

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