Life is all about timing, and this isn't good timing for the Colorado Avalanche.

Matt Duchene, the club's leading scorer with 56 points, will miss Friday's game against the Calgary Flames. It's the first game he'll watch this season, having played in all 71 to date. He has a knee injury, the club announced.

The Avalanche hold a one-point lead in the Western Conference wild-card standings over the Minnesota Wild - both teams through 71 games - so Duchene's loss is a big one.

He's day to day, according to head coach Patrick Roy, but that doesn't help in determining the 25-year-old's status for the rest of the club's road trip through Canada. The Avalanche finish the journey Sunday, March 20 in Edmonton, and are then off until Thursday, March 24.

Duchene has 29 goals and 27 assists. His next marker, should it come, would make him a 30-goal scorer for the first time in his seven-season career.