Morning Skate Diary

Nathan MacKinnon out again; Girard to return tonight

Published

3 years ago

May 12, 2021

So, Nathan MacKinnon is out again. Jared Bednar said that earlier this morning on his Wednesday radio show on Altitude. Bednar said MacKinnon “got dinged up” Monday night against Vegas, an injury he said was unrelated to his previous lower-body injury.

BUT, Bednar said MacKinnon would be good to go for the start of the playoffs. Well, actually what he said was “hopefully he’s good and ready to go for Game 1 of the playoffs.”

Hopefully.

Frankly, this worries me quite a bit. Two separate injuries to MacKinnon right before the playoffs? Not good, Bob.

This team just can’t stay healthy, period, end of story.

Some good news at least: Sam Girard returns tonight, Bednar said. It’ll be great to see La Tornade doing his one-man breakouts again. I think the Avs were hemmed in their own zone too easily against Vegas, and a guy like Tornade would have helped that. Bednar said Brandon Saad is skating again, but won’t play tonight. I think they’ve missed Saad a lot, as I said before. They need his swagger and championship experience back in the lineup as soon as possible.

I’ll update this soon…

UPDATE: Bednar said he has “hope” MacKinnon will be ready for Game 1. This isn’t good at all folks, sorry. I’m worried. Jacob MacDonald comes out of the lineup tonight with Girard coming back in.

Here are some division/President’s Trophy scenarios, courtesy of NHL.com:

Here are the Stanley Cup Playoffs clinching scenarios for May 12:

The Vegas Golden Knights will clinch the Presidents’ Trophy and No. 1 seed in the Honda West Division if:

– Their points earned vs. the San Jose Sharks (9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCA+, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV) exceeds the Colorado Avalanche’s points earned vs. the Los Angeles Kings (9 p.m. ET, ESPN+, ALT, BSW, NHL.TV).

The Colorado Avalanche will clinch the Presidents’ Trophy and No. 1 seed in the Honda West Division if:

– They defeat the Kings in any fashion AND the Sharks defeat the Golden Knights in regulation.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will remain in Presidents’ Trophy contention if:

– They defeat the Ottawa Senators in any fashion (8 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS2, NHL.TV) AND the Sharks defeat the Golden Knights in regulation AND the Kings defeat the Avalanche in any fashion.