The Colorado Avalanche will ice its healthiest lineup of the season Friday night, welcoming back three key forwards.
But it wasn’t all good news at Ball Arena ahead of the club’s game against the Washington Capitals. Starting goaltender Alexandar Georgiev did not participate in the morning skate and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, the team announced.
Justus Annunen will start against the Capitals. Trent Miner has been recalled from the Colorado Eagles to back him up.
Georgiev had a terrible start to the season, even briefly losing the No. 1 role to Annunen. His past four starts have been the best stretch by either goalie, and it appeared that Colorado’s goaltending situation had stabilized.
Georgiev is 4-5 in 10 starts with an .863 save percentage, but is 3-1 and has stopped 95 of 104 shots (.913) in his past four games since getting a break to try and reset after the rough opening stretch.
Annunen had started six of the previous eight games before that. He is 5-2 with an .894 save percentage this season. Miner, a seventh-round pick by the Avalanche in 2019, has not played in an NHL game. The Avs had a third goalie for much of the past month but placed Kaapo Kahkonen on waivers earlier this week and the Winnipeg Jets claimed him.
There was good news for the roster Friday morning. Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood are both returning from injury against the Capitals, while Valeri Nichushkin will make his season debut after serving a six-month suspension and being placed in Stage 3 of the NHL-NHLPA player assistance program.
This will be the first time Colorado has played its top six forwards in a game together the final game of the 2023-24 regular season. The Avs are still missing Ross Colton (foot) and captain Gabe Landeskog (knee).
