Only one game was played on Saturday, but that one game had plenty of significant injury news and overall nastiness beyond the box score.

Avalanche 5, Blues 2 (Avalanche lead series 2-1)

Trade deadline acquisition Artturi Lehkonen led the Avalanche with two goals while taking five shots. Darcy Kuemper stopped 29 of 31 shots in the win.

If there wasn't any bad blood in this series from the first two games, there is now. Jordan Binnington was forced to leave this game after the combination of Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosen crashed into him in the first period. Kadri was not assessed a penalty on the play, which drew the ire of the St. Louis faithful.

Ville Husso is now in between the pipes for the @StLouisBlues after Jordan Binnington left with an injury on the play below. ⤵️#StanleyCup | #stlblues pic.twitter.com/8oaGHdPHH2

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 22, 2022

After the game, Craig Berube told reporters that Binnington has a lower-body injury and is still being evaluated. However, according to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, the Blues fear that Binnington may be out for multiple weeks with a possible knee sprain.

Obviously the injury is not upper-body related if Binnington was able to do this:

I've talked to two people who confirmed it was indeed Jordan Binnington who threw the water bottle at Nazem Kadri. https://t.co/QCBRoA9SZY

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) May 22, 2022

Goalie controversies may not do wonders for team chemistry, but having a 1A and 1B can come in handy in the event of an injury. The Blues are fortunate to have Ville Husso, who has been benched since Game 4 of the first round because of Binnington's hot play. Let's say Andrei Vasilevskiy is the one getting injured. Then the Lightning's Stanley Cup chances would take a hit if they had to turn to Brian Elliott. The Blues are where they are because of Binnington's hot play, but don't forget that Husso was the superior goalie during the regular season.

Husso wasn't at his best in Game 3, though, allowing four goals on 23 shots. The fourth goal he allowed will live on blooper reels for a good long while. I know that goalies know exactly when to leave the crease, but I'm actually surprised this doesn't happen more often.

Welp… that goalie pull didn't work. 🤷#StanleyCup | #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/W4ENyiPGJT

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 22, 2022

The Avalanche have a devastating injury of their own. According to Peter Baugh of The Athletic, Samuel Girard is out for the rest of the playoffs with a broken sternum. Girard received a crushing hit from Ivan Barbashev during the first period. Barbashev was not penalized on the play.

The Barbashev hit ⤵️#StanleyCup | #stlblues | #GoAvsGo https://t.co/geuZihwq7z pic.twitter.com/UDvHbvYUhX

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 22, 2022

Girard has averaged 18 minutes per game while being paired with Josh Manson. The Avs are looking at Jack Johnson, Ryan Murray, or Kurtis MacDermid to draw into the lineup for Game 4, so they will definitely miss Girard's ability to move the puck. Bowen Byram will probably move up the lineup both in terms of overall icetime (under 16 minutes per game during the playoffs) and power-play time (virtually none during the playoffs).

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You can remove one name from the free agent board. Bryan Rust and the Penguins have agreed to a six-year contract extension with an AAV of $5.125 million. Rust finished the season with a career-high 58 points in just 60 games while mainly playing on a line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel. If the Pens are trying to extend their window of contention while Crosby is under contract (three more seasons), then it makes sense to extend the 30-year-old Rust. The cap hit seems palatable, since he may have stood to earn more on the free agent market. However, the six-year term may be an issue down the road.

Now the Penguins will turn their attention to UFAs-to-be Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, both of who are now 35 years old. My very early guess is that one of them will leave via free agency, and that player will be Malkin.

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Brayden Point has been ruled out for Game 3 against Florida. Point has already missed the first two games of this series. Judging by how much pain he was in during Game 7, he could be out a while longer.

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Continuing my 2021-22 season review from a fantasy perspective, here are two more of the worst picks that I made in this season's drafts. Yesterday I discussed what went wrong with Mark Stone and Dougie Hamilton, while today it's two more players who battled injuries and will be looking for a bounce back next season.

Jakob Chychrun

It was a lost season for Chychrun, although there was a brief run of fantasy value. Many fantasy leaguers were looking to drop Chychrun after he had been held without a point in his first 11 games. After that, he slowly started to pick up points until the Coyotes went on an unexpected goal run themselves. During a six-game stretch, Chychrun piled up 10 points. After that, he was done for the season with an ankle injury, which killed any hope that he would be traded before the deadline.

The Coyotes were expected to be a disaster entering the season, which was bound to have a trickle-down effect on Chychrun. It certainly did on his plus-minus, which was already minus-20 over his first 12 games. Even though he led all defensemen with 18 goals in 2020-21, Chychrun scored just seven goals in 2021-22 – five of which were scored during that six-game run. Yet there was kind of a missed opportunity here, as Shayne Gostisbehere managed to record 51 points on the Coyotes blueline – power-play opportunity that could have been Chychrun's. Gostisbehere finished with 19 power-play points, while Chychrun finished with just one.

When Chychrun tries to rediscover his previous success in 2022-23, he might be doing so with a new team. In a recent interview that I heard with Coyotes reporter Craig Morgan, Chychrun wants to be traded. That means we will have to wait before we determine his fantasy value for next season. With the Coyotes deep in a complete rebuild, Chychrun should be at or near the top of a lot of trade bait boards.

Sean Couturier

It's not really fair to include Couturier here, since he missed over half the season because of back surgery. Even if he stuck around, could you see him having a career year given the state the Flyers were in?

Couturier seemed like great value with an ADP of 140 at Yahoo, especially if you consider that he scored at a 70-point full-season pace over each of his last four seasons. However, Couturier provided fantasy teams with just six goals and 17 points in 29 games. That downturn in scoring could have been injury-related, as many of his advanced stats were lower than expected (7.6 SH%, 6.0 5-on-5 SH%, 1.7 PTS/60, 27.3 Sec. Asst%) even though he had been averaging a similar shots-per-game number (2.7 SOG/GP) compared to previous seasons. 

Couturier is expected to recover fully for next season. As a result of the lowered point total, he could have sleeper potential next season. His upside could depend on what the Flyers look like as far as potential scoring options around him.

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Finally, I'll take the question that was left on the Ramblings yesterday regarding draft-day disappointment Stone.

Would you keep Stone over Robert Thomas or Carter Verhaeghe for next year?

I think Stone still has the highest upside over the other two, given the fact that he's been a near point-per-game player over the last three years. But with the highest potential reward also comes the highest potential risk, in the event that Stone's back surgery doesn't fix what ailed him this past season. When on his game, Stone is a Vegas top-line forward who could potentially form a potent line with Max Pacioretty and Jack Eichel.

If you're still leery about Stone, Thomas makes a great fallback option. He joined the point-per-game club this season, and he's seven years younger than Stone, who recently turned 30. In fact, I'd suggest that he should be your preferred option if you're in more of a rebuilding state as opposed to a win-now state.

To compare the three players over various categories and time frames, check out their Compare Players result on Frozen Tools. Hopefully you have all summer to pore through all the data before you make a decision.

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Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.