Injury Bug Biting Chunks Out of Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche are in the midst of a horrible fight with the injury bug, as they went into the weekend with four pool regulars on the shelf and then on Saturday against the Dallas Stars, defenseman Kyle Quincey was lost to the team to a concussion and then on Tuesday night against the Calgary Flames, they lost T.J. Galiardi to a broken wrist.  The list just continues to grow, but for the mean time, they are still sitting in 2nd place in the NW Division, so it hasn't all been bad news of late.

Quincey now joins Peter Mueller, Adam Foote and Kyle Cumiskey, who are all on the Avalanche shelf because of concussions this year and it should come as no surprise that Quincey is now listed as out indefinitely with his concussion.  He will likely get evaluated this coming weekend, which would mark a week with the ailment, but it doesn't sound to optimistic at this point that he will be able to return right away.

Quincey has not been terribly effective in the opening 13 games of the season anyways, having not registered a point to start the year.  Not having a timetable to return to the line-up may make him into waiver draft fodder in a month's time now.

Galiardi was hit into the boards by the Flames' Jarome Iginla, causing his wrist to get jammed and in the end, broken, and he is now listed as out indefinitely, but with Willie Mitchell suffering the same injury over the weekend, we should be able to suggest a 6-week time frame of being on the shelf.

Galiardi has figured into the Avalanche scoring this year, but likely not as well as the team may have hoped for, scoring only 3 goals and 3 assists in the first 14 games of the season.  Nevertheless, taking a regular player out of the line-up generally hurts a team, but when it becomes this many players in such a short period of time, these injuries really start to impact the team.

In a non-pool related injury, the Avalanche also lost defenseman David Van der Gulik to a torn MCL on Tuesday night against Calgary.  Van der Gulik was one of those players already filling in for fallen defensemen, so the news just gets worse and worse for Colorado.

Both Quincey and Galiardi do figure into the draft this year, each at different points in the standings.  Quincey belongs to 7th place Dale C., who hasn't exactly been using his talents to get that high in the first place, but now the potential for points is gone.  Galiardi belongs to the 16th place team of Derek W., who was likely expecting more out of the young Avalanche forward, but will now be stuck with him up until the waiver draft and possibly longer, if he decides to keep him in favour of someone else.

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