I suppose Avalanche coach Jared Bednar telling Altitude950 on Wednesday morning that Nathan MacKinnon is "day-to-day" with "an upper-body injury" (left shoulder?) is good news, but what does day-to-day mean anymore?
(As an example, forward Sven Andrighetto has missed 11 games with a leg injury while "day-to-day.")
MacKinnon, the NHL's second-leading scorer with 61 points, was injured Tuesday in a second-period collision with Vancouver defenseman Alexander Edler.
"He may miss a game or two or three," Bednar said.
The Avalanche turned a 2-0 first-period deficit into a 3-2 lead with three goals in the second period (two by Gabriel Landeskog, the other by J.T. Compher), but they wound up with a 4-3 overtime loss. A bad loss, but not as bad as losing MacKinnon.
They can't afford to lose him for any length of time, and Bednar said in his weekly radio interview with Altitude950's Vic Lombardi that the high-scoring center won't play Thursday in Edmonton. BSNDenver reported that MacKinnon has returned to Colorado for further evaluation, so he's also likely to miss the trip finale Saturday in Winnipeg.
"I guess you could categorize it now as day-to-day," Bednar said. "Hopefully it's not that serious and we can get him back in the lineup soon. I guess it depends on what you classify as serious; every game without him is not good. Hopefully, he can get healthy and get back in and join us real soon."
The Avalanche have lost three in a row following their 10-game winning streak.
"He's such a valuable piece to our team, as everybody knows," Bednar said. "We're just a different team with him in the lineup. He's been healthy and playing well for us. It just becomes more difficult to win when he's not in there.
"For him to miss a game or two or three is certainly, when you see him leave the ice -- if it's long term it's a little scary for your team -- so we're hoping for the best still at this point ... the first indications are it's not real serious.
"He may miss a game or two or three. You just don't know how long it'll be, so it's still tough, especially when you're in the spot where we're in, but it certainly could be worse."
The Avalanche (27-18-4, 58 points) before Wednesday's games were one point behind Anaheim and Minnesota, with the Wild in the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference. Colorado has played two fewer games than the Ducks and one fewer than the Wild.
Rookie Alexander Kerfoot replaced MacKinnon on the top line Tuesday with Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen.
Left wing Matt Nieto was scratched with what Bednar said is a lower-body injury he sustained when hit with a puck during the morning skate.
"Before the game he put his skate on and wasn't able to go," Bednar said. "Hopefully that is day-to-day as well."
*****
Defenseman Tyson Barrie had an assist, one shot on goal and was minus-1 while playing 17:12 in his first game after missing 13 to recover from a broken hand.
"I could definitely feel the timing was off in the first period," he told the Avalanche web site. "I felt a little rusty and I was a little nervous honestly to come back, but I kind of settled into it."