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Hishon to make his NHL debut; MacKinnon is a Calder finalist |
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Rick Sadowski
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Avalanche forward Joey Hishon will make his NHL debut Thursday night in Game 4 against the Minnesota Wild, replacing Paul Carey on the fourth line.
Coach Patrick Roy told reporters that Hishon, the team's first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft, will also see time on a power play that has gone 1-for-11 in the series (an empty-net goal by Paul Stastny in Game 2) and 1-for-22 against the Wild counting five regular-season games.
Hishon, who skated Wednesday, has had to overcome serious concussion problems. He had 10 goals and 14 assists in 50 games this season for the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League.
Roy had already said that Ryan Wilson will replace injured defenseman Tyson Barrie, who is expected to miss between four and six weeks with an injured MCL in his left knee. He was hurt on a knee-to-knee hit from Wild forward Matt Cooke in Game 3.
Cooke was given a seven-game suspension following a disciplinary hearing in New York with Director of Player Safety Stephane Quintal, who moved into the position when Brendan Shanahan accepted the job as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
If the entire suspension is not served over the course of the playoffs, the remaining games will be served at the beginning of next season.
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The NHL has set Game 5 on Saturday at the Pepsi Center for 7:30 p.m. Mountain time.
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No surprises here: Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon is a finalist for the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year, along with Tampa Bay teammates Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat.
I expect MacKinnon to pick up the hardware at the league's awards show June 24 in Las Vegas, not that this would be a surprise either, but it was a heck of a year for rookies. It's unfortunate that San Jose's Tomas Hertl was injured after his big start.
MacKinnon and Johnson tied for the goal-scoring lead among rookies with 24, and the Avalanche forward had the most assists (39), points (63) and power-play goals (eight). The first overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft, MacKinnon had a 13-game point-scoring streak from Jan. 25-March 6 to break Wayne Gretzky's record for an 18-year-old. He had five goals and 13 assists in the streak.
MacKinnon is the fourth Avalanche player to make it as a Calder finalist in the past eight years, joining Stastny (second in 2007), Matt Duchene (third in 2010) and Gabriel Landeskog (first in 2012). Chris Drury won the award in 1999.
Johnson set a Lightning rookie record and tied MacKinnon for the goal-scoring lead among rookies with 24, and he had five shorthanded goals. Signed as a free agent in March 2011, Johnson is the first undrafted Calder finalist since Chicago goalie Ed Belfour in 1991. Belfour won the Calder, Vezina and William Jennings trophies that year.
Palat finished second among rookies with 23 goals and 59 points. He had 17 goals and 27 assists in the final 42 games, the most points by a rookie after Jan. 1.
Finalists for the Selke Trophy, awarded to the best defensive forward, will be announced Thursday. The Avalanche's Ryan O'Reilly, a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy, is a possible Selke finalist.
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Kyle Brodziak, who was scratched for Game 3 after playing in the first two games, will return to the Wild lineup with Cooke out of the picture. Looks like he'll center the fourth line with Dany Heatley and Cody McCormick.
Nino Neiderreiter will replace Cooke on the third line with Erik Haula and Justin Fontaine, a unit that is expected to go head-to-head with the Avalanche's Landeskog-Stastny-MacKinnon trio.
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