After missing eight games, Avalanche winger Daniel Briere has sufficiently recovered from a foot injury to be able to play Thursday night against Winnipeg.
“He will play tonight,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said after the morning skate at the Pepsi Center. “He looked good. I spoke to him on the ice. He said he was good enough to play.”
Briere, 37, was struck in the foot by a shot at Calgary on March 23 and hasn’t played since. He has eight goals and 12 points in 55 games for Colorado and with his contract expiring, .
Until Thursday, it seemed possible Briere already had played his final NHL game. Taking a shot on the foot would have been an unfortunate way for his stay with the Avalanche, and perhaps his NHL career, to end.
It seems that has been avoided, and he goes into the games against Winnipeg and Chicago with 307 career goals. He was the 16th active player to reach the 300-goal benchmark with his game-winning, last-second goal at Boston on Oct. 13.
“The reason why we got him was because of his leadership,” Roy said. “I think he did just that for us. He was a great teammate, and I’m sure our guys have learned a lot from him and that was the purpose of the trade.”
If Briere hadn’t been able to play, the Avalanche would have been short a forward — barring sudden arrangements to get a recalled forward to Denver.
Winger Dennis Everberg, who suffered a shoulder injury against Nashville Tuesday, not only will miss the final two Colorado games, but Roy said he probably will undergo surgery.
“Then he’ll be out probably six months,” Roy said.
Everberg has three goals and nine assists in 55 games for the Avalanche. He’s in his first year of North American hockey after coming over from Sweden, and , but injuries to Avalanche forwards advanced that timetable.
If the Jets beat the Avalanche Thursday night, Winnipeg (96 points) clinches a wild-card playoff berth.
“They are where they are because they played hard and they deserved it,” Roy said. “But I’m not looking at it to play the spoiler role. I just want to make sure that we focus on things we want to be better at. We want to play for our fans, and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Los Angeles (93) and Calgary (95), which face off Thursday night in Calgary, are fighting for the No. 3 spot in the Pacific Division, and — depending on the various scenarios — the other team would hope to still have a shot at the conference’s second wild card, ahead of the Jets. Among other things, though, that would require the Jets not getting two points in Denver.
The Jets also could clinch a playoff spot if they lose in overtime or a shootout to get one point and the Kings don’t get two points against Calgary; or if both the Jets and Kings lose in regulation.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
