Avalanche ‘dodged a bullet’ when Brock Nelson’s wrist was cut by Bo Byram’s skate

BUFFALO Brock Nelson will celebrate his th birthday on Wednesday which means he s experienced a lot in his life as a hockey member Nelson encountered a first Monday afternoon at KeyBank Center when he was cut on the left wrist by a wayward skate It s one of the scariest things that can happen in the sport Luckily for Nelson it went about as well as one of those situations can When I felt it it kind of felt like a stinger-type feeling in my hand I knew I got hit by something then I looked and I saw it was cut Nelson declared after the Avalanche defeated the Buffalo Sabres - I knew I was cut so I just went off the ice I ve never really had a cut like that before When I saw the cut I was almost waiting for more blood to come out I think it was just clean and more superficial Just a couple zips Nelson went to defend ex-Avs defenseman Bo Byram along the boards near the Colorado bench early in the third period Byram got the puck past him but also fell awkwardly to the ice His right leg elevated as the rest of his body tumbled and caught Nelson just under his glove For all of the protection hockey players wear there are a meager places on the body that can get exposed in those types of situations Nelson flung off his glove looked at his hand wrist and promptly went to the Avs bench down the tunnel and in search of a expert We dodged a bullet there Avs coach Jared Bednar commented He got a laceration on his wrist got a few stitches but as of now everything looks intact It was just the flesh which is super lucky Nelson explained they tested his fingers and everything checked out He ended up missing less than eight minutes of competition action and returned to play three shifts in the second half of the third period Both Nelson and Bednar commented they think he s fine moving forward The Avs have been relatively healthy to start this season but losing Nelson for any amount of time would be a vital blow This is his first full season with the club and Bednar clearly enjoys having him available to center the second line Nelson even with missing a scarce shifts against the Sabres has played in the first four games Related Articles Nathan MacKinnon Martin Necas continue early-season tear help Avalanche defeat Sabres Brent Burns may not be Superman but games is another remarkable career achievement What happens with Martin Necas both on and off the ice could define this Avalanche season Nathan MacKinnon Martin Necas look electric together even if it s not a finished product Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard injured out week-to-week He s been a fixture on the first power-play unit is second to Parker Kelly among forwards in ice time on the penalty kill and has the greater part even-strength ice time among the guys up front who don t play on the top line His line along with Valeri Nichushkin and Gabe Landeskog is off to a bit of a slow start offensively with only two assists between the trio combined But that trio has the likely to be one of the best second lines in the NHL Second-line center it is an essential position Bednar stated You need offense out of him You need to be responsible defensively to check other teams top lines They ve been doing that a lot to try and free up Nate s line a little bit I think he s the perfect C You ve got to have one We ve got through it for years trying to find the right guy We re super happy with what he s been able to do with us and what I think he can continue to do with us Want more Avalanche news Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis