Avalanche lose Varlamov for season, Erik Johnson for 6 weeks

The Colorado Avalanche's playoff hopes just took a pair of major blows.

Goaltender Semyon Varlamov is done for the season with an injury the club would only classify as a lower-body ailment, while defenseman Erik Johnson will miss six weeks with a broken kneecap, the club revealed Saturday.

Colorado's No. 1 netminder, left Friday's win over the Chicago Blackhawks late in the third period after Tomas Jurco crashed into him.

Johnson didn't play Friday, and like Varlamov, this won't be his first extended injury absence of the campaign.

Varlamov missed about a month of action between early January and early February, and Johnson also missed a full month between mid-February and mid-March.

The veteran blue-liner leads Colorado in average ice time in 2017-18, having logged more than 25 minutes per night in 62 contests.

Entering Saturday's games, the Avalanche held the same amount of points (92) and regulation-or-overtime wins (40) as the St. Louis Blues, who occupied the second Western Conference wild-card spot.

However, the Blues held a game in hand, so the Avalanche found themselves outside the playoff picture, and it's going to be even more difficult to qualify for the postseason without Varlamov and Johnson down the stretch.

Compounding matters is that Colorado has only four games left in the regular season, and they won't be easy - a road back-to-back against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings on Sunday and Monday, another away affair against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, and then a meeting with the Blues at home to close out the schedule next Saturday.

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