Avalanche Notebook: MacKinnon Is Day To Day

What seemed like a normal Avalanche practice today turned a bit more worrisome. Nathan MacKinnon is listed as day to day after participating only half the practice today. The team did drills on one rink and MacKinnon did not move to the other rink when the rest of the team did to work on power play drills. He did not make it obvious what had happened to him, he just did not follow the group down the hall.

Coach Jared Bednar was asked about the situation with MacKinnon and he said “He tweaked something.” When followed up with if he is day to day,  Bednar responded with “I guess he is.” For the moment, this leaves MacKinnon’s status for opening night against Chicago as, technically, questionable. The Avalanche practice tomorrow morning so we will see if he takes the ice then.

MacKinnon was seen icing a wrist at one point in Wednesday’s preseason game.

As for the rest of the team, there is pretty much a full squad out there today. Darren Helm and Gabriel Landeskog did not participate in practice due to their injuries. J.T. Compher did participate, albeit in a red non contact sweater. Coach Bednar said “we hope that he sheds it tomorrow, we just have to see how he feels.”  As Adrian Dater had mentioned not too long ago, Martin Kaut and Shane Bowers have both been placed on waivers. This leaves Ben Meyers, Anton Blidh, and Lukas Sedlak as the only bubble players that remain on the squad.

One player still will need to be cut as the roster will need to be trimmed down before Monday at 3pm Mountain Time

It still appears that Alex Newhook has a lock on that 2C role, as he practiced again on the second line. Evan Rodrigues seems to have taken the role of right wing on the second line.

Lines at practice today:

Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Rantanen

Nichushkin-Newhook-Rodrigues

Sedlak-Maltse-Blidh

Cogliano-Meyers-LOC

RED Compher

Black MacDermid-Makar-Byram-Girard-EJ-Manson-Toews

Georgiev

Francouz