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Jared Bednar back behind Avs bench; MacKinnon update

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Good news from Avs practice this morning: Jared Bednar is back.

Jared Bednar, who tested positive for Covid-19 before the season, will assume his duties as head coach. He’ll be behind the bench when the Avs host the St. Louis Blues tomorrow night.

Ray Bennett and Nolan Pratt did a nice job in his stead.

As for Nathan MacKinnon, he’s not at practice today. I’m told he needs to have two straight negative Covid tests before he can play again. I do not know whether he’ll need to have a negative test tomorrow or not, in order to play. I’m sure coach Bednar will shed more light on that after practice.

I’m also hearing Valeri Nichushkin could be out with an injury. He seemed to suffer some kind of upper-body injury in Wednesday’s game. We’ll get an update soon. Let’s hope he’s just dinged up a little and can be out there tomorrow.

*UPDATE: Confirming what I’d heard, the Avs say Nichushkin is out “week-to-week” with an upper body injury.

The Blues, by the way, have been up in Vail the last few days, practicing at Dobson Arena and “team bonding” in the mountains.

The team has actually done that before. In fact, in 1994, after the NHL lockout ended, I drove up to Vail to do a story on the Blues and their new head coach, Mike Keenan. Brett Hull gave me a great interview too. It was the first time I’d ever been around an NHL team as a reporter.

I would say Brett Hull was the best quote of any player that I’ve ever been around. He always just told it like it was. Boy, do I miss guys like him.

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