Stewart Suffers Broken Hand

Just to add fuel to the fire, the argument of whether or not to let your star players fight will get stoked with news that Chris Stewart of the Avalanche has broken (or fractured) his hand after a fight with the Wild's Kyle Brodziak.  The diagnosis on Monday afternoon is that Stewart is slated to miss 4-to-6 weeks, which would put him back in the Avalanche line-up by the middle of January at the latest, more than likely closer to the New Year.

Stewart has been dynamite for the Avalanche this season, picking up 11 goals and 14 assists in the first 23 games, which is good enough for 18th in pool scoring going into Sunday's action, better than a point-per-game pace.  This will be a huge hole to fill for Colorado for at least the next few weeks, but the Avalanche have been known to look straight into the eyes of adversity and prevail, so here's another test.

Stewart is Dale C.'s best player after Saturday's action and trying to recover from sitting in 13th place will require your best player in action, so this is a big blow to Dale's season.  The biggest question for Dale would be, is it worth it to drop Stewart, who will miss 3-to-5 weeks of the next 9-week segment, for another player who likely won't score at the same pace and risk not being able to get him back when the second waiver draft rolls around.  Decisions, decisions.

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