Avs head coach Bednar won’t reveal much about Kuemper’s injury status

The day after Colorado’s crazy 8-6 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against Edmonton, the topic on everyone’s mind was the health of Avs goalie Darcy Kuemper.

The Avalanche’s starter exited in the second period and did not return with an “upper-body” injury. On Wednesday, Colorado head coach Jared Bednar was asked to elaborate about Kuemper’s status for Game 2, but wasn’t going to reveal much.

“We’ll see. I don’t know yet,” Bednar said when asked if Kuemper could play in Game 2 on Thursday night. Here’s a video of the brief exchange with a reporter:

Darcy? “We’ll see” pic.twitter.com/jDnqPK8ZCy

— Darren McKee (@DMacRadio) June 1, 2022

There’s been speculation Kuemper’s injury is related to the eye issue he suffered against Nashville, but Bednar shut that talk down as well.

“I’m not going to get into his injury. Especially not this time of year,” Bednar said.

Kuemper and his backup, Pavel Francouz, both gave up three goals in the 8-6 victory. Can the Avs beat the Oilers in this series with either guy in net? Absolutely. It’s not like Edmonton played a lick of defense in Game 1. If the games have to be 8-6, 7-5, 6-4, then so be it.

Now can the Avs win the whole thing with Francouz instead of Kuemper in goal? That remains to be seen, with both Tampa Bay and New York trotting out elite starting goalies on a nightly basis. But we’re also getting ahead of ourselves, considering dispatching a very dangerous Oilers team is still the task at hand.

Whether or not Kuemper will be part of that journey the rest of the series is firmly up in the air, with Bednar not offering much clarity one way or the other.

(Update: 6:30 p.m.) –

104.3 The Fan Avalanche insider Adrian Dater has provided some more answers on what’s truly going on with Kuemper.

Hearing there are/were Kuemper concussion symptoms from pucks to mask last night, symptoms which include vision/fogginess. Had previous eye injury too. Fluid situation. A couple good nights’ rest be all needed. Tomorrow key. @ColHockeyNow

— Adrian Dater (@adater) June 2, 2022

That’s some good news and some bad news. The good being Kuemper could return in a day or two. The bad, of course, being this might be concussion related. Stay tuned.
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