Although the Colorado Avalanche are comfortably in the Western Conference’s playoff picture at this point in the season, their 2022-23 campaign has been far from easy. Ravaged by a flood of injuries, we have rarely gotten to see an Avalanche squad hit the ice that closely resembles the team that won the Stanley Cup in the summer. Today, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar issued some injury updates on players to the media, including Altitude Sports’ Marc Moser.
According to Bednar, Gabriel Landeskog, Bowen Byram, and Josh Manson are unfortunately not close to returning from their injuries. He did deliver some good news as well, though, noting that franchise center Nathan MacKinnon is nearing a return, and that penalty-killing specialist Andrew Cogliano would be returning to the lineup. While the Avalanche still won’t be near 100% anytime soon, the positive developments regarding a few players are certainly encouraging.
Some other injury news:
- The Montreal Canadiens are dealing with their own rash of injuries, currently missing veterans such as Brendan Gallagher, Mike Matheson, Sean Monahan, and David Savard. The Canadiens have said, via Sportsnet’s Eric Engels, that Gallagher is the only one of that group that will be joining the team for their trip to Florida, meaning Montreal could be getting a crucial veteran leader back in their lineup in the near future.
- Trevor Moore will be out for tonight’s game as his Los Angeles Kings take on the Vegas Golden Knights, per LA Kings Insider’s Zach Dooley. Dooley also notes that Moore, who has 19 points in 37 games this season, could be out for the team’s game against Colorado as well.
- Washington Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters, including The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, that forward Beck Malenstyn is “close” to a return from his finger injury. The 24-year-old 2016 fifth-rounder has played in five NHL games so far this year and could be in a position to pass his career-high of 12 NHL games played in a season, a high he set last year.