(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
I recently started listening to a podcast hosted by two New York City comics. It’s very funny, but the biggest thing I’ve taken away from it is this saying, “Es lo qué es”; it is what it is. Its something I’ve started to say when shit hits the fan in my life. I can’t lie and say its made everything easier to deal with, but it certainly helps, and its really just the beginning of the process. I’m not bringing this up to try and change everyone’s mindset on life, quite the opposite actually, I’m bringing it up because I’ve already found something that it doesn’t work for… hockey injuries.
About halfway through Monday nights game against the Kings, I heard the announcers mention that Nathan MacKinnon hadn’t taken a shift in quite some time and was not on the bench. After hearing this I did the only rational thing, I started furiously refreshing twitter waiting for an update. The update came sometime later, and it was unsettling, to say the least. MacKinnon would not return to the game, and it was announced today will miss one to two weeks. What. The. Fuck. I didn’t think the Avs injury problems could get worse than they were, I was an idiot. It was only natural the way this season has gone that MacKinnon would get injured. This team has been injured since the second week of the season and may not be fully healthy until after playoffs start. While MacKinnon’s injury sounds relatively “minor” he’s joining a long list of guys currently on the mend.
All injury time tables referenced here are taken from NBC’s ROTOWORLD
- Andre Burakovsky is currently listed as day-to-day with an Upper Body Injury (UBI). Coach Jared Bednar stated that he believes Burky could return during the Avs four games homestand (beginning tonight against the Rangers).
- Mikko Rantanen is listed as day-to-day with a UBI. Bednar believes Mikko could also return during the homestand
- Matt Calvert is listed as week-to-week with a Lower Body Injury (LBI). Bednar believes he could be back at the end of the current homestand.
- Nazem Kadri is listed as week-to-week with an LBI, but Bednar believes Naz could also return by the end of the homestand.
- Phillip Grubauer is listed as indefinite with an LBI. There isn’t currently a timeline for Grubi’s return, but from what I’ve heard it sounds like the end of March is the goal.
- Also worth noting here is that Colin Wilson is still on injured reserve. He has been off crutches for a little while now but is not expected back anytime soon. Wilson has been injured since the first month of the season, but getting him back for playoffs would be great considering the astronomical amount of injuries this team has dealt with.
Some may have noticed that there is a very big name missing from that injury report, Cale Makar. As they say, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, or some shit like that. The point is Makar is back and the Avs NEED him to be his absolute best. With four of the team’s top six point producers currently out of the lineup, guys like Donskoi, Compher, Jost, among others are going to need to step up in a big way offensively. The Avs are in an absolute dog fight with the St. Louis Blues for the top spot in the Western Conference. If the depth players can’t produce an uphill battle turns into an impossible battle. And while the Avs currently have an eight-point lead over the Dallas Stars for second in the Central Divison, that comfortable bubble could begin to shrink without depth players stepping up. For many teams, this would be a time to hit the panic button, but the Avs have played well this season while missing key players. That, however, was not the case this past week.
The four games that the Avs played since I last posted a Snow Report have been dismal, to say the least. Their four-game west coast road trip ended with a record of 1-2-1 for a total of three points. It gets even uglier when you look at the teams they played, 4-3 OT loss to Anaheim, 6-3 shit-kicking at the hands of the Canucks, an unconvincing 4-3 win against the lowly Sharks, and a 3-1 loss to the Kings. No matter how you slice it those are some terrible results. Forgivable, but terrible. I say forgivable because of the number of injuries. The Avs were basically playing games with an entire line of AHL forwards, and one or two AHL defenceman. It makes it hard to win hockey games when three to four guys are playing less than 15 minutes a game. It wears on the higher end players, and over time those guys start to wear down and don’t have the same pep in their step. So as bad as those results look they do not tell the whole story.
The story of injuries, which brings me back to the title of this blog. Do I actually hate hockey? No, well sometimes, but only when I’m actually playing it. What I actually hate is watching this incredible team, and this season, get incrementally picked apart by injuries. I know that’s just how the game works sometimes but it sucks. It’s much like having a ski season with really good snow all year, but every time you go out the wind picks up and blows a bunch of it away. This regular season has been great, but it just feels like it could have been even better. Hopefully, the boys can come out flying tonight and scratch out a win against the surging Rangers. Enjoy the game and see you guys next week.
Questions, comments, concerns for my well being, leave them down below or let me know on twitter: @msovi27
The Snow Report 