Goalie Kuemper ready to go for the Avalanche

The swelling around Colorado Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper’s right eye has subsided a week after catching a stick blade through his mask.

“I can see now,” he said with a laugh Sunday after practice.

This remains clear to him, too: The incident could’ve been far more serious. “I got pretty lucky,” Kuemper said, “that it wasn’t worse.”

The stick of Nashville center Ryan Johansen slipped through the protective bars on Kuemper’s mask and caught him around the eyelid during Game 3 on May 7. It’s the second time in his NHL career an inadvertent stick blade has poked Kuemper through his mask.

“Super strange,” said Kuemper, who will be back in net when the Avalanche begin their second-round series against the St. Louis Blues. “First time, definitely thought it was one in a million. Twice is two in a million.”

Still, he has no plans to change goalie masks. FUTURE IN DOUBT FOR TRIO OF CAPITALS >> Nicklas Backstrom gutted through a hip injury that caused him to miss the first two months of the season, and Tom Wilson as hard as he tried couldn’t do the same in the playoffs on a bad knee.

Now it’s possible neither is on the ice when the puck drops next season.

The Washington Capitals could be in for a long summer that bleeds into fall given the uncertainty surrounding Backstrom, Wilson and winger Carl Hagelin, who hopes to play hockey again after a scary incident almost cost him his left eye.

Wilson could be headed for surgery for what he called a pretty significant knee injury, and Backstrom’s future is in doubt with a big decision looming.