Well, Bernier was the guy who pulled us into the playoff race to begin with, time to see if he can drag the team into the playoffs as well.
Losing EJ sucks but Barrie did so well in his absence last time that I still have hope.
Don't be fooled by the 10 game win streak, that was a blip on the radar for Bernier. Take that streak out and he is sub .900 Sv % on the year. He is just not a very good goalie, sans one hot streak. So I guess if he plays like he did during the hot streak then we'll be ok. If plays like he has the rest of the season, I'm not liking the chances. Let's be real the guy has had two concussions in the past 2 months, if it was me I'd take my chances with the Hamburgler and hope he goes all world. Over a maybe not 100% right and possibly gun shy Bernier.
The Varly injury sucks, I'm firm believer in Varly, he still has top tier abilities IMO as demonstarted by his play the past month'. The guy just can't catch a break. And unfortunately I think the Avs need to find a long term solution as we can't deal with losing him every single year to an injury.
Which leads me to the injury he got last night. I think it's garbage that players have no reprocutions for crashing the net. In today's NHL players just go as hard as they can towards the net, and consistently I'm watching goalies get plowed. It's not right, it's hard enough to be a goalie as is, you shouldn't have to worry about getting destroyed by a player charging the net. I realize Jurco just "lost an edge" and that happens, but he still plowed the goalie and didn't even get a penalty. I'm not sure how to change this trend as it's not just Avs goalies getting hurt on stuff like this. Maybe they need to go back to goals that don't move or some kind of crease rule. I'm not really sure, but it's frustrating to watch a goalie get plowed on an almost nightly basis.
As for EJ, I think he is just like Varly. A good player, but can't catch a break and is constantly injured for extended periods of time. If it was me I'd seriously consider exposing him in the next expansion draft. Large contract, 30+ player (at that point), that can't stay healthy for an entire season. I love EJ but he is worthless to us while sitting in the press box for extended periods of time every single season.