AVALANCHE

Hits keep coming for Avalanche as MacKinnon is now out significant time

Dec 6, 2022, 6:43 PM

The Avalanche didn’t catch a break with the Nathan MacKinnon injury.

Because of course they didn’t.

A day after leaving a game against the Flyers in obvious discomfort, the Avs announced on Tuesday night we won’t see Mackinnon until early 2023. He’s expected to miss about a month.

This is injury No. 11 for Colorado, as the team is also missing significant pieces like Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, Evan Rodrigues, Bo Byram, Josh Manson and Artturi Lehkonen. It’s unclear exactly how MacKinnon got hurt or the type of injury he’s battling, and “upper body” is likely all the information the Avalanche will provide.

Like they’ve done all year, the Avs will have to try to overcome this, but they’re quickly running out of bodies. Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen are by far their best players remaining, as head coach Jared Bednar tries to manage a roster that looks more like the Colorado Eagles than the Avalanche.

Right now, the team would barely be in the NHL playoffs, securing one of the wild cards in the Western Conference. They’ll be back in action tomorrow night at Ball Arena against the Bruins, a team that smacked them 5-1 last Saturday.

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