VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The injury-plagued Avalanche featured a relatively small, puck-moving defenseman in each of its three pairings Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.
Because of the upper-body injuries sustained Sunday by blue-liners Erik Johnson and Anton Lindholm, the Avs recalled David Warsofsky and Andrei Mironov on Monday. The 5-foot-9, 170-pound Warsofsky, who had played just one game with Colorado this season, stepped into the lineup and partnered with Duncan Siemens, who played his sixth career NHL game. Mironov, a rookie from Russia, was a healthy scratch, but he provides depth if anyone else is injured during this three-game trip that goes through Edmonton on Thursday and Calgary on Saturday.
Warsofsky, who played with Pittsburgh’s organization the last two seasons, said he and Mironov were in Chicago with the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League when they got word of the call-ups, and they arrived here Monday night after the team flew in from Denver.
Tyson Barrie, 5-10 and 190 pounds, replaced Johnson and partnered with Nikita Zadorov on the top pairing Tuesday, and teenage rookie Sam Girard, 5-10 and 162, played with Patrik Nemeth on the second pairing.
The Avs also are without defenseman Mark Barberio, who missed his 12th consecutive game with a lower-body injury.
No relief is in sight. Johnson and Lindholm are out indefinitely and Barberio, who was originally listed as day-to-day, is not yet skating in his recovery process. It is believed that Johnson, who leads the team in ice time, has a broken or dislocated wrist.
Unless the Avs trade for a defenseman by Monday’s deadline, the seven current ones will try to help the team stay afloat in the Western Conference playoff race. Colorado (31-23-4, 66 points) entered Tuesday’s games five points out of the final spot.
Footnotes. Forward Nail Yakupov returned to the lineup after serving as a healthy scratch the last two games. He replaced rookie Dominic Toninato. … Avs coach Jared Bednar said there is no further update on goalie Jonathan Bernier, who continues to go through concussion protocol back in Denver. Bernier was injured in Friday’s 6-1 loss at Winnipeg.