Devon Toews only out another 7-10 days

While I still don’t have any update on the condition of Nathan MacKinnon, I do have some fairly encouraging news on the health and status of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews.

Toews underwent an MRI today for his lower-body injury suffered last week against San Jose, and the results were good, all things considered. Toews is only expected to be out another 7-10 days, Colorado Hockey Now has learned. It was originally feared Toews might miss multiple weeks (beyond two anyway) from the injury he sustained, after blocking a shot in the third period of Colorado’s blowout win over the Sharks last week.

Toews, who signed a four-year contract with the Avalanche in the off-season and was off to a great start, had never missed a game in his NHL career prior to this injury. Devon Toews had been partnered with Cale Makar to start the season, as top-two guy.

As for MacKinnon, it’s still radio silence. The Avs have today off from all hockey activities, so information might be scarce until tomorrow. I’ll pass along anything if I hear it in the meantime. It certainly didn’t seem like MacKinnon suffered any big injury, based on the video of his final shift last night in Minnesota, but that doesn’t mean it might not be something serious.

One of the problems in diagnosing injuries a bit more quickly in the Covid-19 NHL is that teams can’t take their doctors on the road with them for games, like they sometimes did in the past. So, you have to get back to your home city to get checked by your own doctors. Obviously, if it’s something major, there are doctors on the road (including the home-team one) that can help, but otherwise there is a bit of a lag now in getting checked out.