Avalanche postgame: MacKinnon injury update, and Makar’s thoughts on penalty

Let’s get right into what most people want to know about before anything about tonight’s Avalanche result: an update on Nathan MacKinnon’s health status.

Avs coach Jared Bednar said of the lower-body injury that kept him out of the game: “it’s nothing serious”, which jibes with what Colorado Hockey Now reported earlier in the evening. Yet, Bednar also said this: “He’s banged up a little bit. … he was getting some work done this morning, and trying to get ready to play, and he’s just hurting a little bit. So we decided to not to risk, or not making his injury/issue worse. So, we went without him tonight and we’ll have to make a decision on him tomorrow. We’ll see how he’s feeling and keep talking to him; I don’t want him playing through thing that could possibly get worse at this point, because we’re getting close to the postseason here.”

As Bednar also said earlier today, the “No. 1 priority” of the team right now is to go into the playoffs as healthy and rested as possible. That’s why, even though the Avs would like to win the Honda West Division title, I think they’ve just basically come to the conclusion that “hey, let’s not kill ourselves just to win a division title at the expense of the larger goal, the Stanley Cup.” 

Frankly, I think the Avs are better off playing the Minnesota Wild in the first round, instead of the St. Louis Blues. We’ll see if I come to eat those words, but I doubt it. I just think the Avs and Bednar believe their best chance of winning in the playoffs is with a healthier lineup than a potential Game 7 on home ice in either of the first two rounds.

I doubt MacKinnon will play tomorrow. In fact, I bet the Avs just shut him down until Game 1 of the first round. What’s the point of playing him and risking something worse, over just resting him and let him come out flying for Game 1 against the Wild? I’ll take my chances with that. If it comes down to the last game of the season and the Avs could win a division flag win a win in that game, then, yeah, I can see MacKinnon playing.

But at this point, I’d let him rest up for the more important games ahead.

THOUGHTS FROM THE GAME TONIGHT

• Bednar said defenseman Patrik Nemeth had a sore neck after taking a hard hit into the boards, which prevented him from playing further. He said Nemeth does not have a concussion though.
• Tremendous game from Cale Makar. He had a goal and assist, after getting called for a goalie interference penalty in the first period. It was a bad call, as Makar was pushed into the goalie. I asked Makar if that penalty put a burr under his saddle, and he essentially said it did. “That was a bit of an interesting one for me to accept,” he said. “I wanted to get that one back.”
• He did, with a beauty of a goal that gave the Avs a 3-1 lead in the second period.
• Makar was assisted on the goal by Alex Newhook, his first career NHL point.
• Bednar said Newhook was “better” than in his first game, but also indicated that he still has some room to get “up to speed” with the NHL game.
• Tyson Jost scored the Avs’ first goal and did a nice job filling in for MacKinnon at 1C, even though Bednar said he “got a little fancy” with the puck at times.
• Avs outshot the Kings 37-17.
• Philipp Grubauer probably got a little bored in the game, which might explain some of his iffy rebound control at times. He seems like he’s still trying to get his groove back some since coming off the Covid list.
• I would bet that Grubauer will play again Saturday, with the division title still on the line. Playing Jonas Johansson just wouldn’t be putting the best team on the ice. Yet, maybe Bednar will just say the rest is more important for Grubi right now. We’ll see.
• Mikko Rantanen scored his 30th goal. Quite an achievement in a 56-game season in which he’s missed a few games.