Of course, the betting odds reflect that Colorado is one of those teams that just needs to stay afloat. That's three top forwards, two good defensemen and an important backup goaltender all currently out for this team. Backup goaltender Pavel Francouz is now injured as well. Defensemen Bowen Byram and Josh Manson are injured and not close to returning.
Valeri Nichushkin missed six weeks earlier, returned, and then re-injured himself and is now expected to miss more time. Nathan MacKinnon has missed almost a month due to an upper body injury, though his return is getting close. He's expected to be out for at least another month. On top of the roster turnover, they've also been bitten hard by the injury bug.Ĭaptain Gabriel Landeskog has yet to play this season after knee surgery in October. They lost starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper to the Washington Capitals as well.
Key forwards Andre Burakovsky and Nazem Kadri departed in free agency. Even entering the season, we knew that Colorado wasn't the same team that won the Cup last year.
