Avalanche to be without top veteran forward due to mysterious injury
The Colorado Avalanche already have two major absences in their top-six, and now, they will be without yet another key forward for a short period of time.
This season is meant to be another potential Stanley Cup run for the Colorado Avalanche, but with forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog both still out, the forward group carries with it plenty of question marks. Unfortunately, things are about to get much, much worse for the team, with forward Jonathan Drouin reportedly set to miss some time with an upper body injury.
According to Evan Rawal, Drouin is set to miss at least the next two games with the mysterious injury, with the expected timetable of his return still up in the air moving forward.
This is another brutal blow for a star studded team that just can't seem to stay healthy, and with a bottom-six that already didn't matchup to the best in the West, their lineup after the Drouin injury certainly isn't ideal.
With his absence, the team are now relying on Ross Colton and rookie Cal Ritchie to play roles in their top-six, with three of their top five wingers now out for at least the next few games. That is on top of Nikolai Kovalenko skating on their top line at practice, and even with a team that has Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and arguably the NHL's best defensive pairing, this is a very worrying sign.
Updates are expected to come on Drouin in the coming days, and with a four-game home stand against opponents like the Blue Jackets, Islanders and Ducks, the team can definitely sustain themselves until a potential Drouin return, but if he's out for a sginificant time, this could seriously hurt their chemistry early in the year.
