- Avs trail Vegas 3-0 in the West Final with Game 4 Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET
- MacKinnon hurt his right knee blocking a Shea Theodore shot in Game 3
- Read below for Bednar’s full update, the injury video, and the presser
Jared Bednar isn’t ready to say whether Nathan MacKinnon is playing Tuesday night.
The Avalanche coach met with reporters Monday in Las Vegas, a day after Colorado’s season got pushed to the brink in a 5-3 Game 3 loss to the Golden Knights. MacKinnon went down in the second period after blocking a Shea Theodore one-timer off his right knee, and Bednar wouldn’t tip his hand on what comes next.
“I don’t have any updates,” Bednar said, per Derek Van Diest of NHL.com. “Those guys are getting treatments, they’re getting evaluated. It could be tomorrow morning before we know, it could be game time before we know, so we’ll just plan for all scenarios.”
MacKinnon crumpled to the ice at 12:15 of the second, fought his way to the bench, and took two more shifts before heading down the tunnel. He came back out for the third and played 4:05, mostly on the power play and during the empty-net push.
Here’s the shot that did it:
Bednar made it clear how out of character that kind of pain is for MacKinnon.
“He was clearly in a ton of pain. I’ve been here 10 years and I’ve seen Nate lay on the ice twice. I’ve seen him leave a couple games, one in the playoffs against San Jose a couple of years ago and last night, and still come back.”
Catch the full post-game presser:
The coach added that he’d take a limited MacKinnon over no MacKinnon at all, even if all he gets are power-play and 6-on-5 shifts. Hard to argue. Nate led the NHL with 53 goals during the regular season and tops the Avalanche playoff scoring chart with seven goals and 15 points in 12 games.
Colorado also has Valeri Nichushkin to monitor after he limped off late in the second. That’s two top-six forwards to sort out before puck drop.
The hill is already brutal. Teams down 3-0 in a conference final are 0-49 all-time. Only four clubs in NHL history have ever come back from 3-0 in any best-of-seven. Without their best player, the math gets ugly.
Game 4 is Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
