Nathan MacKinnon is back

Here’s some fresh video I just took, of Nathan MacKinnon flying around the Ball Arena ice at Avs practice. Notice the blue sweater, a refreshing color change from the blood orange togs of yesterday.

That means Nathan MacKinnon is cleared for contact and a full participant with the Avs again. We’ll hopefully hear from Nate after practice, or perhaps the coach, on his status. But if I were a betting man, I’d put money on MacKinnon being in the Avs lineup tomorrow night against the Arizona Coyotes.

The Coyotes, by the way, are bracing for some potentially bad news with regard to their No. 1 goalie:

There was concern after last night's injury that Darcy Kuemper could miss as many as 4 weeks. That would obviously be a big blow to the Coyotes, just as it was last season. Kuemper was being re-evaluated this AM. We'll know more after talking to coach Rick Tocchet this afternoon.

— Craig Morgan (@CraigSMorgan) March 9, 2021

He posted this just now:

It's going to be the Antti Raanta and Adin Hill show for a while. Darcy Kuemper is going to miss significant time. At least the rest of this road trip, probably more. https://t.co/OFYvtX6Hsc

— Craig Morgan (@CraigSMorgan) March 9, 2021

I hope to get a clearer picture on the status of Cale Makar today, too. He’s not out there right now, by the way. Let’s hope he didn’t have some kind of setback with his upper-body injury. It looks like this might be an optional practice, and a lot of guys took the option not to be out there.

A lot of the guys out there are some of the lesser-used players, such as Jayson Megna and Dan Renouf, etc. Dennis Gilbert is out there too, albeit in a non-contact jersey with a full facial shield.

No Bo Byram out there either. Jared Bednar seemed optimistic the other day when talking about him, but he has not practiced with the team in a while. On and on, the injury bug goes.

I guess we just to take today’s blessing regarding Nathan MacKinnon and be content with it. We may not hear from Bednar after practice, as he also is not out there – just the skills coach, Shawn Allard. If that’s the case, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to hear from him.

UPDATE: Bednar did talk on Zoom, and here’s some stuff: Bednar said there hasn’t necessarily been a setback with Cale Makar. “He could come back tomorrow, or two months from now. Nobody knows.” … I’ve heard from other sources that Makar should be back soon. There appears to be a disconnect with the injury info. on Makar somewhere, lol. Let’s just hope for the best (I think I need to trademark this saying). … Bednar said MacKinnon will play tomorrow.