Girard missed his first game in his Avalanche tenure on Saturday with an upper-body injury. He appeared in all 68 regular season outings after he was acquired by the Avalanche on Nov. 5 from Nashville in a three-team trade and made his playoff debut in Game 1.
"I don't have an update on him this morning," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. "He seems to be doing a little better today. I'll talk to the trainers when I go back there, day-by-day for him."
The 19-year-old defenseman was one of eight Avalanche skaters who skated in their first Stanley Cup Playoffs in Game 1 in Nashville. With Girard out of the lineup for Game 2, Duncan Siemens played in his inaugural NHL postseason contest.
"I thought he was good, real good on the penalty kill, physical," Bednar recalled of Siemens. "Analytics say that he was on the positive side of things when it comes to shots and chances against and chances for. I thought he did a real nice job last night."
Also not on the ice for practice was goaltender Jonathan Bernier. The netminder has been between the pipes in both contests for Colorado and recorded 28 saves, a postseason personal best, in the loss on Saturday.
"He was OK, I think he can be better though, for sure," Bednar said of Bernier. "I think if you look at the importance of goaltending this time of year, good is usually not good enough. I think their guy made some saves at some key times and some big saves to kind of let them keep the lead or have a chance to fight back and be in both of those games.
"As shooters, we got to keep putting traffic there and keep putting pucks there and find a way to beat [Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne] when we get those Grade-A chances."
Colorado will look to earn its first win of the series when it hosts the Predators in Game 3 on Monday evening. Puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. MT.
