Is it something in the water? In the air?
We know it isn’t the novel coronavirus, so bad luck seems to be the only reason why so many Avalanche players keep getting injured.
Star center Nathan MacKinnon was the latest to join an ever growing list that includes forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (lower body) and Matt Calvert (upper body), goalie Pavel Francouz (lower body) and defensemen Erik Johnson (upper body) and Devon Toews (foot).
After delivering two assists in the first two periods Sunday in the Avalanche’s 4-3 overtime loss in Minnesota, MacKinnon didn’t come out for the third period, didn’t even sit on the bench.
Here’s the NHL.com RECAP.
The Avalanche announced during the third period that he had sustained a lower-body injury and would miss the remainder of the game.
Coach Jared Bednar said after the game that he wasn’t aware of an injury until the start of the period and didn’t know when or how MacKinnon was injured.
The Avalanche didn’t practice Monday after the back-to-back games, and there wasn’t an update as of late afternoon, so we probably won’t know anything until Tuesday when Bednar addresses the media after the morning skate.
They play the Wild two more times this week, on Tuesday and Thursday at Ball Arena. Bednar sounded as though none of the injured players will be available Tuesday for sure.
Hopefully, the Avalanche will be able to dress a full roster of 20 players. They weren’t able to do it Sunday for salary cap compliance reasons; the injured players still count against the cap and the Avalanche would have gone over it by dressing both defenseman Jacob MacDonald, who replaced Johnson, and forward Kiefer Sherwood, who has been taking Calvert’s spot on the fourth line.
Calvert and Francouz were placed on injured reserve Sunday.
"I think we are playing hard, and we're getting some bad luck," Bednar said after the game. "There are positives that come out of it. I think last year we learned fighting through adversity and injuries that other guys elevated their game and were able to help us win hockey games, and it made us fight for every point that we had. It gives guys experience in different situations; we're seeing our whole taxi squad is up playing at this point, and it's good experience.
“Would I like to have our guys healthy and be playing our full lineup? Absolutely. But that's not something that I can control as a coach or that we can control sometimes as even players, things happen. We are just going to have to fight through it and move on. No one is going to feel sorry for us or any other team that runs into injury troubles or COVID-related absences. It is what it is."