AVALANCHE BRIEFS
The Avalanche’s only injured player remains defenseman Erik Johnson, who suffered a broken fibula Dec. 3. At the time, Colorado coach Jared Bednar said Johnson would be out six to eight weeks, but amended that recently to eight to 10 weeks.
After the Thursday morning skate in advance of the Avalanche’s game against Anaheim, Bednar indicated the 10-week window might be the target, which would take Johnson to about the middle of February.
“He’s progressing,” Bednar said. “We’ve seen him around the rink here now. The boot’s off, he’s walking better. I think there’s a plan to keep moving forward and hopefully he hits the ice in two weeks or so. Then it’s going to take him some time from there. You’re missing eight weeks and that injury tends to be sore when you get it back in the boot, but we’ll see how he handles it when he starts skating.”
Scratches. Veteran Avalanche center John Mitchell was a healthy scratch for the first time this season against the Ducks. He missed the first five games with a hip injury, but has played in every game since. His only goal of the season came Dec. 8 at Boston. Colorado placed him on waivers in early November, but he was unclaimed and remained with the team.
The other Avalanche scratches were Joe Colborne and Eric Gelinas.
Nieto steps up. Matt Nieto, playing his second game after being claimed in waivers from San Jose last week, started out on the second line with Matt Duchene and Rene Bourque. In his first game, against the Islanders, he was on the third line with Carl Soderberg and Jarome Iginla.
“It’s exciting,” he said of playing with Duchene. “He’s one of the dynamic players in the league. He has the ability to make plays and he’s just very dangerous every time he’s out there. Good opportunity, I’m excited to play with him. It should be a lot of fun.”
By the the third period, though, Nieto had switched spots with Gabe Landeskog and was skating on the line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He logged 13:57 of ice time against the Ducks, with two shots on goal.
Reunion. Avalanche veteran defenseman Francois Beauchemin again renewed acquaintances with former Ducks teammates in the first Colorado-Anaheim meeting of the season. He played in nine seasons for the Ducks in two stints.
“Those are the games when the schedule comes out, you circle those games,” Beauchemin said Thursday morning. “It’s always special to play against them. When you win a championship with any team, it’s special to play against them.”
Beauchemin said he had suffered from a sinus infection before the bye break, causing him to miss the Islanders game.
“I feel good,” he said. “I kind of needed it because I had that sinus infection that put me down for about three days. I’ve used those extra days to get more rest and be ready to go.”
Beauchemin played 18:09 against the Ducks and was a plus-1.
Benchmarks. Jarome Iginla played in his 1,514th career game, tying Steve Yzerman for 15th on the NHL all-time list. Also, wingeer Blake Comeau played in his 600th caeer game.
