Morning skate notebook: Jost day-to-day with knee injury

Turns out Tyson Jost didn’t escape that scary collision into the boards unscathed after all. The Avalanche forward will not play Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks with a hyperextended left knee, along with a bone bruise. He won’t play Saturday night in Dallas, either.

The better news, though: Jost should be back on the practice ice Monday, and could be back in the lineup Tuesday in Nashville.

I saw Jost walking around the dressing room this morning, and he wasn’t hobbling or anything. Jared Bednar believes Jost was “fortunate” not to have been hurt worse. So, Matt Nieto is in the lineup in Jost’s place.

Here are the lines and defensive pairs for the game against the Ducks:

Andrighetto-MacKinnon-Rantanen

Kerfoot-Duchene-Yakupov

Landeskog-Wilson-Compher

Nieto-Soderberg-Comeau

Zadorov-Johnson

Nemeth-Barrie

Barberio-Bigras

Jonathan Bernier will get the start in goal against the team he played for last season.

I talked some with Nieto this morning, and he admitted he didn’t play well in the season-opener against the Rangers. He took three minor penalties in the game and has been scratched since. Nieto did grumble some about one or two of the calls against him, but otherwise knows he has to be better.

Bednar, too, said so. Bednar said he didn’t think Nieto looked great in the preseason either, that he wasn’t using his speed well enough. So, this is a big night for Nieto. If he doesn’t take the opportunity to play well while Jost is out, he could be facing a very inactive season.