When Erik Johnson got hurt way back on January 4, I was in panic. An already patchworked defense losing their number one D — I thought it would spell certain disaster for the Colorado Avalanche, just as they were pulling back into the play off race. However, in the 9 games that EJ was absent the Avs went 6-3!
Granted they weren’t all pretty, and they got spanked by Tampa and Chicago in back to back games in the stretch. However, a .750% record without EJ! Thats awesome, and a little bit amazing.
And after the two losses there were significant roster moves with Brandon Gormley and Nate Guenin getting sent down while Nikita Zadorov and Chris Bigras got the call up.