Colorado Avalanche
Nathan MacKinnon won’t play for the Avalanche against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; KUSA, ALT, SNP) and could miss their upcoming two-game road trip to end the regular season.
The forward could be rested until the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs while also nursing an undisclosed injury.
“He’s dealing with something,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I think you get to this point in the year, all these guys are dealing with something. The guys that didn’t get the break, too, for the 4 Nations [Face-Off]. This has been a tough stretch of games since then, right? I think rest is part of it, though.”
MacKinnon leads the Avalanche in goals (32) and assists (84), and is tied with Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning for first in the NHL with 116 points. He has 43 points (16 goals, 27 assists) during his current 26-game home point streak.
“I don’t think that individual accolades [matter to him]. I think they’re nice. I think he’s won a lot of them,” Bednar said. “His trophy case is huge. I don’t think it matters to him. I think winning has always been the most important thing to him. Having accomplished that in 2022, I think he got a taste for it, and he wants to win again.”
MacKinnon’s streak of 209 consecutive regular-season games played will come to an end Thursday. Colorado plays at the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and at the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
Colorado is third in the Central Division, six points behind the second-place Dallas Stars, but has played one more game.
Forward Martin Necas and defenseman Samuel Girard will return from injury Thursday. Necas missed the past three games because of an upper-body injury, and Girard missed the past four games because of a lower-body injury.
Defenseman Ryan Lindgren won’t play Thursday after he sustained an upper-body injury during a 3-2 shootout win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.
Forward Jonathan Drouin participated in morning skate in a noncontact jersey, but will miss his fourth straight game because of a lower-body injury.
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog was loaned to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment Wednesday. Landeskog has been working toward a return since undergoing cartilage transplant surgery in his right knee May 10, 2023. He last played in Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final. — Ryan Boulding
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