The Wraparound: Kuemper ‘eager to get going’ after scary eye injury

It was a pretty normal game situation with an Avalanche player defending a Predators player in front of Darcy Kuemper‘s crease. But as the Colorado goaltender was tracking the puck as it was coming to the front of the net an errant stick entered his mask and hit his eye.

“I didn’t know what happened until I watched it,” Kuemper said on Sunday. “It happened so quickly. Obviously, pretty scary when your eyes are involved but, you know, I got pretty lucky that it wasn’t worse.

“I think just bad luck.”

Fortunately, there was no damage to Kuemper’s eye, only swelling around his eyelid which forced him to miss the rest of Game 3 and all of Game 4 during their First Round sweep of Nashville. He’s been back at practice since the weekend and is expected to get the Game 1 start when the Avalanche begin their Second Round series against the Blues Tuesday night (9:30 p.m. ET).

“For me individually, it’s been great to have that extra time to heal up,” Kuemper said. “We’re biting at the chop to get back playing. Playoffs are the funnest time of year to play. Especially at home here in front of the crowd. The crowd here was so fun [against Nashville], so we’re eager to get going.”

Kuemper, who posted a .942 5-on-5 save percentage against the Predators in three games, per Natural Stat Trick, has impressed head coach Jared Bednar since returning to practice. Colorado has not played since May 9 as they awaited to find out who they would play in the Second Round.

“So that is the one positive for us, [our] goalie will be sharp, ready to go and feel 100 percent,” Bednar said

Game 1: Tampa Bay Lightning at Florida Panthers, 7 p.m. ET (TNT, Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports): Brayden Point is likely out for the Lightning tonight after suffering an