Swelling around Avalanche G Kuemper's eye subsides, prepares for Blues

DENVER (AP) — The swelling around Colorado Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper's right eye has subsided a week after catching a stick blade through his mask. '

“I can see now,” he said with a laugh Sunday after practice.

This remains clear to him, too: The incident could’ve been far more serious.

“I got pretty lucky," Kuemper said, “that it wasn’t worse.”

The stick of Nashville center Ryan Johansen slipped through the protective bars on Kuemper's mask and caught him around the eyelid during Game 3 on May 7. It's the second time in his NHL career an inadvertent stick blade has poked Kuemper through his mask.

“Super strange,” said Kuemper, who will be back in net when the Avalanche begin their second-round series against the St. Louis Blues. “First time, definitely thought it was one in a million. Twice is two in a million.”

Still, he has no plans to change goalie masks.

“The stick was the right shape, unfortunately,” explained Kuemper, who also was injured while with Arizona in 2019, when a stick accidentally struck him after a backhanded goal. “Just a scary situation. ... It just happened so quickly and, obviously, it’s pretty scary when your eyes are involved.”

The play took place late in the first period of the Avs’ 7-3 win. Replays showed Johansen’s stick extended through Kuemper’s mask while fighting for position near the net with Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon. Kuemper fell back before skating toward the bench. Halfway there, he dropped to the ice.

“I was skating off but kind of blind in my direction,” Kuemper said. “The ref was yelling at me to stay down. That's why I went back down.”

Kuemper then headed to the locker room covering his right eye.

“I saw the doctor right away and he said it was more eyelid than