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MacKinnon will play Sunday |
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Rick Sadowski
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Center Nathan MacKinnon took part in a full practice Saturday with contact and will play Sunday when the Avalanche meet Edmonton at the Pepsi Center seeking their 11th consecutive home win.
MacKinnon, who has 61 points (24 goals, 37 assists) in 49 games, will be reunited with left wing Gabriel Landeskog and right wing Mikko Rantanen, who combined for one goal and six assists in his absence.
"A hundred percent, I feel good," said MacKinnon, who missed eight games with an upper-body injury believed to be a shoulder. "My trainers did a great job getting me ready, getting me healthy quickly, so I'm good."
MacKinnon was injured Jan. 30 in a collision with Vancouver defenseman Alexander Edler. He was second among NHL scorers when he left the lineup.
The Avalanche (31-22-4) went 4-4-0 without MacKinnon and are three points behind Minnesota for the second wild card playoff berth in the Western Conference. The Wild lost a 3-2 shootout to Anaheim on Saturday.
"You get your best player back, it's positive, no question" coach Jared Bednar said. "He drives our offense in a lot of ways, 5-on-5, power play. We need him back, but we can't just rely on Nate. It's not just going to magically turn around here in our favor just because he's back in our lineup."
"l'll try and do my job, play how I was playing when I was healthy," MacKinnon said. "Gabe and Mikko help me a lot and hopefully we can find some chemistry right away. We've been one of the best lines in the NHL all season, so we're confident. Gabe and Mikko are special players and I'm excited to join them.
"I didn't want to rush it too much, but at the same time I wanted to get back in the lineup and I wanted to help my teammates. This week has definitely been challenging, I've been skating very hard and I feel healthy and I'm excited to play now.
"I've been skating for two weeks. Six days after I got hurt I started skating, not with any pucks but I was still bag skating every day. The past 13 days I skated 12 times. It's nice to be with the team. (Friday) I was by myself and I figured there were 200 people watching me skate, a bag skate. That gets old."
Bednar said goalie Jonathan Bernier is going through concussion protocol after he was injured Friday in the Avalanche's 6-1 loss in Winnipeg.
Andrew Hammond was recalled from Belleville of the AHL and will back up Semyon Varlamov against the Oilers.
The Avalanche assigned A.J. Greer to San Antonio of the AHL to make room for MacKinnon.
The probable lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Alexander Kerfoot -- J.T. Compher -- Colin Wilson
Gabriel Bourque -- Tyson Jost -- Nail Yakupov
DEFENSE
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Samuel Girard
Anton Lindholm -- Tyson Barrie
GOALIES
Semyon Varlamov
Andrew Hammond
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