Johnson is out six to eight weeks with a leg injury, breaking his fibula after blocking a shot in the Avalanche's game on Saturday against the Dallas Stars, while Tyutin will miss his second straight contest with a minor lower-body injury.
For guys like Gelinas, this is a chance to prove himself as the next man up.
"It's too bad we lost probably our best defenseman. I feel bad for him, but at the same time it's a great opportunity for me," Gelinas said. "I try to look at it as like a two-month interview pretty much; I'll have six to eight weeks to prove myself. I can help this team, and it's up to me to show up and play well and play strong."
Gelinas will be competing in his second consecutive game tonight against the Nashville Predators after being a healthy scratch for five straight and seven of the previous eight outings.
He'll look to help a club that is coming off a 3-0 loss against the Stars and is winless in its last five outings (0-4-1).
"I think if you ask anybody in the league, they don't want to be in this situation," said Gelinas of watching the game instead of playing in it. "We're hockey players because we want to play hockey, and we don't want to be just a practice guy or a workout guy. It's tough, especially that we didn't really win many games lately. It's tough; you want to help and you want to do your thing and stuff like that. It's frustrating. It's a situation that's not really fun to be in. Now I see a great opportunity for me to get out of that situation."