Thursday, March 08, 2012

Duchene Out 4 Weeks With Ankle Injury

A very harsh season for Colorado Avalanche superstar Matt Duchene hit another major speed bump, not long before the finish line. On Tuesday night, Duchene left the game against the Minnesota Wild with an ankle injury and the news of the test results came down on Thursday afternoon and they were not good. Duchene is expected to miss the next 3-to-4 weeks of the season with the ankle injury, but the player is hopeful that he can return to the line-up before the end of the regular season.

With just over four weeks to go in the regular season, the crunch is really on the healthy members of the Avalanche, sit they are still within reach of a playoff spot, going into Thursday night's action.  It will be exceptionally difficult with one of their mainstays on the shelf again, but that's hockey for you.

Duchene is having his worst season in the NHL, currently ranked 250th among all players in pool scoring this year, with 13 goals and 13 assists in 48 games played.  In his rookie and sophomore campaigns, he was able to post 80+ games and his rankings were never below the top 100, just to put it all in perspective.  With this injury, there is a fine chance he'll drop below the top 300 mark before the end of the regular season.  A very disappointing year, indeed.

ImplicationsEven more bad news for Dale C., who really hasn't gotten the distance out of Duchene that he would have wanted, especially being as though he was his 3rd round pick in the draft.  A very disappointing outcome, which has put him well out of the money at the start of Thursday evening.  Dale had some good picks in Evgeni Malkin, Logan Couture and Johan Hedberg, but a good number of his picks fizzled out of late and it looks like he will be shutout of the prizing this year.

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