The Colorado Avalanche lost a crucial player to injury for the opening Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets.

Colorado Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin will miss the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs due to a lower-body injury, the team announced on Saturday. 

"Not ideal obviously, bad luck. What can you do? Obviously we're bummed that he's not in — big part of our team, and really good player so we're definitely going to miss him," Mikko Rantanen said. "But, you know, I think it's next man up, you know? That's what happens sometimes in hockey, you get injuries and stuff, nothing you can do so just got to fill his spot and play as well as we can."

The 29-year-old left in the second period of the Edmonton Oilers matchup on Thursday and did not return. It is unclear what exactly was injured but the organization gave the timeline of the first-round series which could be two weeks. 

"Huge blow. Sucks, I mean super unfortunate — brutal luck and hopefully we get him back soon though. 

"If I could do more, I would. I don't know. I'll try to be my best. A lot of things in hockey are out of our control but you know we're going to try and play our best hockey with or without Dru (Drouin), doesn't really change much ... Hopefully I play well this series but yeah we definitely miss him a lot, he's you know one of our best players, he's had an awesome year and definitely love playing with him," Nathan MacKinnon said. 

The Ste-Agathe, Quebec native put up the best numbers of his career — in his first season with the Avalanche. He tallied 56 points (19 goals, 37 assists) and was a plus-12 in the 79 games he played in burgundy and blue. 

"We're missing a top-six forward that can help produce offense, really responsible checking player too now as well," head coach Jared Bednar said. "But when you're talking about a team that you're playing it's tough to produce offense against, and you pull one of your top five, six players out of the lineup in that regard, then it's you know, it's a big loss. Huge loss."

For veteran Zach Parise, who is playing in the last postseason of his career, the loss of Drouin is unfortunate. 

"It's a tough one for us. He's played great, he's had a great season. Had some really good chemistry with those guys on the 5-on-5 and on the power play," Parise said. "We have to, as a group, pick up the slack and get ready to play tomorrow." 

It is unknown if Drouin traveled with the team (he most likely did) but the organization called up defenseman Brad Hunt, forward Chris Wagner and goaltender Arvid Holm from the Colorado Eagles to make the trip. 

Samuel Girard practiced in a black jersey with the team on Saturday but Bednar said he does not know if he will play Sunday night. 

Captain Gabriel Landeskog and Logan O'Connor — who were both at practice Saturday — are with the team in Winnipeg. 

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