Nathan MacKinnon good-naturedly confirmed two things after the Avalanche’s practice Monday.
One, he indeed suffered a broken nose when taking a hit from Minnesota’s Sean Bergenheim in the third period of Colorado’s 3-1 Saturday loss to the Wild.
Two, the 19-year-old MacKinnon temporarily doesn’t seem to be in the good graces of Avalanche coach Patrick Roy after a Friday benching in the third period at Dallas, though he said he hasn’t spoken to Roy about it and accepts it as part of the inevitable cycles of the game.
Later that afternoon, the Avalanche traded veteran forward Max Talbot to Boston, also an issue for MacKinnon because he has been living this season with Talbot; his wife, Cynthia; and their infant son, Jaxson, in the basement of the Talbot home in the Cherry Creek area.
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So that raised another potential issue for the Avalanche winger, who suffered his first broken nose.
“I think it was his shoulder that hit me in the face,” MacKinnon said of Bergenheim. “Honestly, I haven’t watched the video. I just remember coming off the ice, bleeding on my hand. Whether it was a penalty or not, I’m not sure. Obviously both sides are biased. I’m biased. Minnesota’s obviously going to be biased as well. I’ll leave it up to you guys. I guess you guys aren’t biased.”
MacKinnon was wearing a fishbowl-type visor at practice.
“It’s part of the game and I guess I’m a hockey player now, with a broken nose,” he said. Teammate Cody McLeod, he added, “is pretty pumped about it. He’s calling me ‘Twisted Beak’ and different things.”
MacKinnon returned to the ice in the third period wearing a cage. “I didn’t help very much, but I didn’t want to leave the guys hanging,” he said. “Right now, it feels OK. I’m starting to get a couple of black eyes and the guys were saying over the next couple of days it’s going to get a little worse.”
MacKinnon played 100 seconds in the third period at Dallas then was on the third and fourth lines at even strength vs. Minnesota.
“I was playing power play last game and played 16 minutes,” MacKinnon pointed out. “No, I haven’t talked to Patty at all about it. He juggled the lines and we started playing well at Dallas, and the other guys were playing well and I wasn’t having a very good game.”
He added, “The first shift I was benched, we scored and we kind of started rolling. When things are going well, you don’t want to mess with it. I get it. I’m not rattled about it. At first, you’re kind of shocked. It doesn’t happen very often. Patty knows what he’s doing, and his best interests (are in) winning and I know it’s nothing personal.”
Before the game Saturday, Roy said he had just “lost” MacKinnon and hadn’t deliberately benched him, which seemed a way to avoid criticizing the NHL’s Calder Trophy winner from a year ago. But when asked if Roy was sending him a message, was he getting it, MacKinnon repeated: “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Patty. I’ll have to ask him.”
Roy, also the Avalanche’s vice president of hockey operations, was not on the ice for practice Monday, the NHL’s trade deadline day, and wasn’t made available to the media. He also had parried questions about MacKinnon not playing on the top two lines after the game Saturday.
MacKinnon has 13 goals and 24 assists in 63 games for the Avalanche in his second season.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
