Colorado Avalanche
Nathan MacKinnon has possible serious injury, from fight with Dumba?
This is always the time of year when the Avs seem to get ambushed by injuries. It’s happening again. Nathan MacKinnon, back to Denver on a plane this morning, upper-body injury, could be out weeks and coach Jared Bednar said it’s possible MacKinnon’s injury is related to his fight with Minnesota’s Matt Dumba on Sunday.
AvsNotes:
-MacKinnon out with an upper body injury and flew back this morning
-Girard skated today for the first time
-Lehky on a line with Newy and Burky#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/HptJfW2e6P— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 29, 2022
Well, hey, at least Artturi Lehkonen will make his Avs debut tonight. Good news there…right Avs fans?
Let’s just go ahead and say it: MacKinnon was unwise for dropping the gloves and fighting Dumba, and now he and the team will pay for it. Kurtis MacDermid was about to step in and take care of things with Dumba or anyone else on the Wild, but MacKinnon started throwing punches. Now, he’s out, and it’s always serious when the Avs fly a guy back from a road trip early. I mean, why wouldn’t MacKinnon have just come back tonight with the team otherwise? They obviously want to get this thing diagnosed as soon as possible.
I get that he’s sticking up for teammates and that’s all well and good. But MacKinnon’s hands are precious property. He needs to be smarter than that. The playoffs are about a month away. Now, we all have to hold our breath on the prognosis.
Broken hands often are 4-6-week rehabs at best. I’m not saying it’s a broken hand. I have no idea what the actual injury is. But if it is…that’s the usual rehab timeline.
The one thing I’ve been worried about with this team as the playoffs near? Injuries. And, here they come again. To the best players, too.
Nazem Kadri will center a top line tonight against the Flames, with Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin. Newcomer Lehkonen will skate at left wing on a line with Alex Newhook and Andre Burakovsky.
The conference title, in my mind, is still wrapped up. So, the Avs can “afford” injuries when it comes to the regular season. But the playoffs? Um, maybe not. This is bad new today, no matter how you slice it.
But…
As noted by @kylekeefetv, #Avs are 19-3-2 in last 24 without MacKinnon.
— Adrian Dater (@adater) March 29, 2022
Boulding: It’s only one game, but Avs have too many passengers
Top 10 Most Unforgettable Goals in NHL History
“Just haven’t had the legs yet” – Cale Makar hints that he may be playing hurt (+)
Colorado Avalanche Player Grades, Game 2
Frei: No “jump” for Avalanche? How can that be?
Avalanche to face St. Louis Blues in Round 2
Scouts, NHL exec weigh in on Avalanche and chances against Blues (+)
Dater: Avalanche Pull One out of the Fire
Avs Mailbag: Girard talk, the rest/rust issue and what are rules for getting name on Cup?
Shades of Chris Stewart here.. What a bonehead if it’s from the fight.
Nope, still not bad thing for Mack. You don’t just step aside and let someone not on the ice do your battles. Mack was the closest so it makes the most sense for him to do it, and yes it is going to suck not having him in the line up but we can afford it in the regular season right now, and every time Mack has been out this year the team has stepped into another gear and played well. Would be very disappointing for a player like Mack not to step up at that moment
You’re correct, except now there’s no Landeskog. I’d venture to say that Landy is more important to the team than Mac.
If Avs play Wild in playoffs it’s going to be very very nasty.
Let’s hope Avs can be nasty first and not as a matching principal. Failures of three second round exits owned by the team’s alleged leaders and the corporate coach. Corporate coach cannot adopt like a former player coach. Bednar has no clue.
At least Sakic did not listed to MacHappystick at the trade deadline. And MacHappystick needs to morph into a slot shooter, and a defensive stalwart. Otherwise he will get shut down again. He is very easy to solve.
Dude is living rent free in your head, that’s definitely not getting shut down
Naturally…..
I knew that bag of ice was a bad sign.
Well at least Mack and Landy get some rest before the playoffs now. Bednar was giving them non of that. Now limit the ice time for Mikko to or under 20 minutes please.
A 4-5 week “rest” is too long before the playoffs IMO. Rust can creep in quick. Guys playing at the start of the playoffs will be playing at max physical level. MacK could come in all rusty. I’m worried
Ah poppycock. Mac has been shut down the last few games. Was a zero vs. Minnesota. Did he even have a shot on goal? MacHappystick needs to watch Brett Hull in his prime and learn and emulate. And end the ‘boomerrang’ powerplay bullocks. It’s a MacTurnover near every time.
Yea AD injuries are obviously not good and can leave something bothering too. I was being sarcastic, in parts anyway. The top line though is at the top in ice time of their respective positions. Of the competing teams anyways. At center only the Oilers duo had more average minutes played than MacK. I worry they wear them out before the playoffs begin if Beds don’t start to limit the time.
Yeah, he’s relentless with ice time for the top 2 lines.
Wow! Terrible news. I hate to be the one that tells MacKinnon that he may have to miss playoff games. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
MacHappystick will pout as usual. At least out of the public eye. Time to grow up MacHappystick and step-up.
Maybe just a broken finger. Hopefully not a wrist ligament issue. He did continue to play and although he wasn’t very effective the rest of the game (he wasn’t really before the fight either), hard to imagine him being able to hold his stick the rest of the game with a broken hand — even as tough as hockey players are. I was for him fighting, but now I wish one of his teammates had stopped him. I do not really care MacDermott was coming on as it would not have been a fair fight and Dumba wouldn’t have fought… Read more »
I don’t think they’d have flown him back so fast if the worry was a broken finger. Just a hunch. We’ll see though
Unless they think it requires surgery to fix
Let’s not jump the gun on this. We don’t know what the injury is and it is “possible” it’s from his Dumba fight. I think we are still at a place I’d say you’re jumping to conclusions. This needs to play out a bit more. I’m even one that thinks guys like MacKinnon shouldn’t be fighting just for this reason.
good points Bob
Man that LTIR exception looks mighty sweet right now. Too bad we didn’t make use of it.
On the positive side, better now than closer to the playoffs or worse during the playoffs!
MacKinnon is a no-holds barred, top professional NHL player. He is passionate about the game and protective of his teammates – if you hit his line mate (high), he’s gonna drop the gloves. Hurt or not, you have to admire the absolute toughness he demonstrates every time he hits the ice. The team needs to rise to the challenge in his absence. Go Nate! I am a longtime Avs fan and a former hockey dad – my son had two fights in beer league! Until they take it out of the game, you aren’t going to take the fight out… Read more »
Love Joe’s fight with Doug Gilmour, especially the biased announcer saying Gilmour got in some good shots of his own. Must be a different angle he was watching from. As a sidebar, I noticed that with the effort to “rag doll” your opponent many of the combatants turn sideways and hence many punches seems to be make contract with the guys helmet. Bare knuckles on strong plastic like that must be hard on your hand. Note how all of Joe’s punches are straight at Dougies face.
Once again the Avs get screwed at this time a year because a physical team takes shots at their top guys. I get it…they tried to address the physicality piece with their deadline acquisitions but so far nothing has changed.
This has been the book on the Avs for years and nothing ever changes. We NEVER take a cheap shot or go after another team’s top players. Teams know they can get away with it every year against these guys and their top players will remain unscathed.
I was initially worried when he had the ice bag on his hand. I was further worried when Matt Sokolowski was leaning in talking to him after he got back to the bench. I tend to not jump on the “well if he wasn’t fighting” bandwagon simply because for all we know if he doesn’t fight it doesn’t mean he’s injured in a different way at another point of the game or season. Much like everyone makes a big deal about NFL players being injured in the preseason, who says they aren’t injured in the first regular season game. This… Read more »
Extremely dumba to fight Dumba. MacHappystick needs to come back with a new game. Shoot and only shoot and be a great two-way player. His stickhandling is suspect and 80 percent of the time leads to a turnover. His passing judgement is suspect too. 85 percent of the time one of his risky passes results in a turnover.
Shoot, play defense, make the low risk pass, forget about making the crowd ewww and awww!