LOS ANGELES — The status of Avs star center is uncertain following a lower-body injury he sustained in Monday’s night game here against the Kings. Avalanche coach will give an update on MacKinnon’s injury Wednesday, according to the team.
MacKinnon missed the last half of Monday’s 3-1 loss to the after getting hit. He skated off without a limp and on his own power. He was believed to have been hurt during a puck battle against the wall with Kings forward Martin Frk, who played two years of juniors with MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
The Avs returned to Denver on Tuesday, and MacKinnon was scheduled to meet with team doctors.
Following Monday’s game, Bednar had little to say about MacKinnon’s injury. “He leaves the game, I’m concerned right away. I have no idea (of the severity),” the coach said. “I know he wasn’t good enough to come back in the game tonight. So, yeah, there’s some concern.”
In a slow-motion replay of the play, Frk is seen making sideways contact with his right leg against MacKinnon’s left leg. The Czech Republic-born Frk, 26, played three seasons for Halifax from 2010 to 2013, the latter two with MacKinnon, 24. They both joined the Mooseheads as 16-year-old offensive stars.
Frk was selected in the second round (49th overall) of the 2012 draft, by the , and MacKinnon went No. 1 in 2013 to Colorado.
Footnotes. The Avs, who went 1-2 on their three-game Pacific Coast road trip after taking a nine-game points streak into it, didn’t practice or have media availability Tuesday. … Colorado returned forward Martin Kaut to the American Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles on Tuesday after recalling the 2018 first-round draft pick on an emergency basis before Monday’s game. The Avs also returned forward Sheldon Dries to the Eagles. … The Avs remain two points behind the Central Division-leading St. Louis Blues with one game in hand. The Blues have a Western Conference-high 92 points.
