The Colorado Avalanche lost their cornerstone defenseman on Saturday night. Erik Johnson will be out until mid to late January with a broken fibula.
This is a disaster for the team. The Avalanche, embarrassingly, are dead last in the NHL. Not last in the Central Division, as they have been for a while. Not last in the Western Conference, like they finished the 2012-13 season. They have the fewest points in the entire NHL — fewer even than the Arizona Coyotes and their cap floor team.
We’ve gone over and over what’s wrong with the team — and we’ll continue to do so — but there’s no doubt defense has been part of the problem.