Kyle Quincey returned to the Avalanche dressing room after doing extra postpractice conditioning skating under the watch of assistant coaches at Family Sports Center on Monday.
The 25-year-old defenseman then talked about his recovery from a concussion and his quest to get back into the Colorado lineup after being cleared to play, but remaining a healthy scratch the past two games.
Quincey suffered the concussion against Dallas on Nov. 6 in a collision with the Stars’ Brenden Morrow.
“It was a flip out of the zone, and I went to take it on a bounce,” Quincey said. “Morrow came at me, and I didn’t know where the puck was, so I kind of put my head into him so he couldn’t get by me. His knee hit me in the side of the head, full steam.
“I’ve had a few concussions, and this one was minor compared to some of the others I’ve had. But still, when you have four or five of them, they take a while for you to come back. . . . I finished the rest of the game, and I came (to Family Sports) the next day like nothing was going on, and I went to ride the bike before practice, and my body just told me no, there’s no way I could keep going. I got dizzy, had headaches and was sick.”
Quincey didn’t have a point in 13 games at the time of his injury but still was averaging nearly 20 minutes a game. There has been shuffling among the defensive corps since his injury, and the latest was Jonas Holos’ demotion to Lake Erie over the weekend. With Kyle Cumiskey still out with a concussion, Colorado now has seven defensemen on the active roster.
“I think I had my best game against Dallas,” he said. “I thought things were looking up. It was frustrating when you’re on the upslope and you get hurt again. But this is a blessing in disguise, I think. I can start fresh when I get back and just go from there and pick up where I left off last year.”
Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said he hadn’t decided whether Quincey will return to the lineup at Vancouver on Wednesday.
“It’s good to have seven healthy defensemen here, all who are very capable of playing and giving us good, quality minutes,” Sacco said. “I like the fact that we’ve won four games in a row and we’re 5-1 in our last six too, so sometimes it’s tough to make changes.”
Sacco said of Holos’ demotion to Lake Erie: “He needs to play. That’s the bottom line. He’s a young player and he needs to be playing in all different situations. But I tell you, he’s been a pleasant surprise for us from Day One. He’s done a good job. He came into training camp and established himself as a defenseman we can count on here someday.”
Footnotes.
Avalanche defenseman John-Michael Liles, who had two goals and five assists in Colorado’s four consecutive victories, was named the NHL’s No. 2 star for the week. . . . Adam Foote and Matt Duchene didn’t practice Monday. Sacco acknowledged that Duchene “is a little bit sore,” but the coach characterized it as a “maintenance day” for both players.
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
