'I'm sure it's going to come quickly for him,' Avs coach confident Lehkonen will fit back in lineup
Artturi Lehkonen returns to the Avalanche lineup after missing two and a half months due to an upper-body injury.
Two significant Colorado Avalanche players are back in the lineup against the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
Artturi Lehkonen rejoins the team after missing 35 games due to an upper-body injury sustained on Nov. 9. The 28-year-old forward said he is looking forward to getting back at it.
"Feels good, I'm excited to be back, so it's going to be fun," Lehkonen said.
The Finland native, who has not played in a game for 76 days, said it may take some time to get back into a rhythm.
"Of course it takes a while but I feel like I'm in a good head space and ready to help the team win some games again," Lehkonen said.
Fellow Finn and teammate Mikko Rantanen is glad to have Lehkonen back for several reasons.
"Another all around player we can add. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes when he's out there — on the right spots always and he's a good penalty killer and good on the power play as well so I think he's going to help us for sure on that," Rantanen said. "Just a overall good player, really good player."
Head coach Jared Bednar is not concerned with his top six forward fitting back into the lineup. He said it could take time for Lehkonen to get his confidence up but that's the key to having him fully back. He plans on easing him in but said he will be back on special teams immediately.
"Coming back from this one I'm sure he'll be a little nervous just because of the nature of his injury but as he starts playing, his confidence will come back and we'll see — I would say — the Lehky (Lehkonen) that we're all used to," Bednar said. "I don't know how long that will take, it could be immediate. It just depends, I'm sure it's going to come quickly for him."
Bowen Byram has been rehabilitating a lower-body injury he suffered on Jan. 4. Since this is not the first LBI the defenseman has endured, it wasn't necessarily a newly acquired impairment.
"Nothing to do with my head but it is kind of similar lower body injury," Byram said. "Just kind of a finicky thing, you never know long it's going to take. I was able to get some good rest, and good treatment and everything and I'm feeling 100% so I'm excited."
The Avs rank second in the league for most home wins with an 18-5-0 record at Ball Arena. The team's success on home ice and two key players returning has added a boost for the last two games before the All-Star break.
"Energy's good. Obviously we had three days here in between after kind of a long road trip and now it's just two games left before the break," Rantanen said. "So we want to obviously finish with two wins, that's what we're looking for. We've been playing pretty good at home."
Projected lineup
Jonathan Drouin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Logan O’Connor
Artturi Lehkonen — Ryan Johansen — Andrew Cogliano
Kurtis MacDermid — Fredrik Olofsson — Joel Kiviranta
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Bowen Byram — Sam Malinski
Alexandar Georgiev
Ivan Prosvetov
This is the first of two matchups between the Avs and the Caps. They face off again at Capital One Arena on Feb. 13.
Colorado beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-4 on Saturday, while Washington lost last night 5-3 to the Minnesota Wild. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. MT.
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