{"id":128472,"date":"2022-05-07T21:42:12","date_gmt":"2022-05-08T01:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=128472"},"modified":"2022-05-07T21:42:12","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T01:42:12","slug":"darcy-kuemper-injury-makes-him-exit-game-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/05\/07\/darcy-kuemper-injury-makes-him-exit-game-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Avalanche Darcy Kuemper Injured in Game 3 Against Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During Saturday&#8217;s playoff game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/predators\/\" target=\"_self\">Nashville Predators<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/05\/05\/what-the-2022-stanley-cup-playoffs-mean-for-nazem-kadri\/\" target=\"_self\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a> goaltender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuempda01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darcy Kuemper<\/a> went down with an injury. At the end of the first period, Nashville forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/johanry01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Johansen<\/a>&#8216;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/sports\/nhl\/predators\/2022\/05\/07\/darcy-kuemper-injury-photo-colorado-avalanche-goalie-nashville-predators\/9691441002\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stick blade got caught in his facemask<\/a>. Backup goalie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/f\/francpa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pavel Francouz<\/a> finished the game, as Kuemper was ruled out.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">COL coach Jared Bednar said Darcy Kuemper has &#8220;some swelling&#8221; around the eye, but it is not too serious. It is possible the goalie plays Monday in Game 4.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/1523085166754816002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 7, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Darcy Kuemper Injury Might Not Keep Him From Game 4<\/h2>\n<p>After the game, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar stated that Kuemper&#8217;s injury wasn&#8217;t serious. There is some swelling but he &#8220;remains a possibility to play in Game 4. According to Peter Baugh from The Athletic, Kuemper <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Peter_Baugh\/status\/1523067685956845568?s=20&amp;t=WI_7bzUHPjekFWEYmVwdHA\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">avoided a concussion or long-term injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The goaltender has performed well in this series, posting a 2-0 record, with a .941% save percentage. This is a relief for Colorado since he is crucial to Colorado&#8217;s playoff hopes. The Canadian player has been on a hot streak since January, posting a .921% save percentage and a 37-12-4 record in 57 games.<\/p>\n<h3>Avalanche Confident in Pavel Francouz<\/h3>\n<p>Backup goaltender Pavel Francouz <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adater\/status\/1523083786522562561\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stated that he feels like he can play behind his team<\/a>. He helped the team secure the 6-3 win over the Predators, giving the Avalanche a 3-0 series lead. Francouz saved 18-20 shots, with both goals against coming on the power play.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/toewsde01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devon Toews<\/a> stated that the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adater\/status\/1523081461993074688\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Avs are &#8220;ready to go to battle&#8221; for Francouz<\/a>. The goaltender has performed well while backing up Kuemper. He recorded a .916% save percentage and a 15-5-1 in 21 games. Before this season, Francouz hadn&#8217;t played since the 2020 playoffs due to injury. He has a career playoff record of 2-4-0 in 6 games, with a .892% save percentage.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado&#8217;s defence has played well, only surrendering 8 goals through three games. The special teams have been a major boost as the Avalanche went 4\/5 on the power play in Game 3. The penalty kill has been excellent, going 8\/11 through the series. This should give Francouz some much-needed confidence.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"p6btZo7VS-ttbhNQq35plw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1240497159\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'p6btZo7VS-ttbhNQq35plw',sig:'EvXdE7DaJSG1F0WfSBqHGQIsA42kjgVr4HEZ7vTnkhk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1240497159',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During Saturday&#8217;s playoff game against the Nashville Predators, Colorado Avalanche goaltender Darcy Kuemper went down with an injury. At the end of the first period, Nashville forward Ryan Johansen&#8216;s stick blade got caught in his facemask. Backup goalie Pavel Francouz finished the game, as Kuemper was ruled out. COL coach Jared Bednar said Darcy Kuemper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4192,"featured_media":128478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,6671,34,4548],"tags":[872,3276,1108],"class_list":["post-128472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avalanche","category-injuries","category-news","category-nhl","tag-darcy-kuemper","tag-pavel-francouz","tag-ryan-johansen"],"modified_by":"Luiza Vidal, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}