Jonathan Drouin will miss the Avalanche’s first-round playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets due to a lower-body injury, leaving the team with limited forward options and necessitating line reshuffling.
The Avalanche is hitting the ice with a bit of a hiccup. They’ll be missing a crucial piece of their forward lineup against the Winnipeg Jets. The team’s Twitter feed dropped the news: Jonathan Drouin is out for the first-round series. A lower-body injury is to blame. The 29-year-old winger got sidelined during the second period of the final regular-season game against Edmonton. And he didn’t make it back on the ice.
That game, well, it was an interesting choice by both teams. Edmonton decided to bench several key players. The Avs? They went the other way, sticking to their playoff lineup. Turns out, that might not have been the best move.
Drouin’s journey to Colorado was a bit of a fresh start. After a rocky end with Montreal, he snagged a low-cost, one-year deal with the Avalanche. Hopes were high to boost his market value. And boost it, he did. After a bit of a slow start, Drouin found his groove. He was racking up points like nobody’s business towards the season’s end.
His efforts didn’t go unnoticed. Drouin earned his spot on the top line. By the season’s close, he tallied 19 goals and 37 assists over 79 games. Among all the pending unrestricted free agents, his 56 points landed him in eighth place. Not too shabby, right?
Now, looking at the Avs’ bench, they’re a bit thin on forwards. They’ve got just two extra guys. There’s winger Joel Kiviranta, with a modest nine points from 56 games. And then there’s Chris Wagner. He’s been called up from AHL Colorado, as Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now tells us. Both are more your fourth-line depth guys. So, yeah, the team’s gonna have to do some shuffling before Sunday’s game rolls around.
