Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar out vs. Canadiens
The Colorado Avalanche will be without Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar for Saturday night’s clash with the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre as they take on the third game of a four-game road trip, seeking a bounceback after Thursday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators.
The two leading superstars left the game in Ottawa less than a minute apart with lower-body injuries and were deemed unfit to play on Saturday morning. Makar went to collect a puck in the offensive zone and felt discomfort when cutting to his left, only able to push off with his right side before eventually heading to the locker room.
Mackinnon, meanwhile, missed a cross-ice pass in the offensive zone and attempted to reverse-hit Ottawa’s Artem Zub before the defenseman caught him on the right side with a cross-check, sending him to the room just moments after Makar’s ailment.
In their place, Gavin Brindley was called up from the AHL’s Colorado Eagles to replace MacKinnon. At the same time, Alex Gagne, who joined the road trip as an extra defenseman, is expected to join the lineup against the Canadiens.
With MacKinnon absent, the Avalanche will be without their leading scorer, who has 10 goals and 20 assists for 30 points in 20 games, leaving Martin Necas and Artturi Lehkonen’s productive line to produce without their key playmaker.
“Obviously, they’re two of the best players in the world, so you like to have them, no doubt,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog told reporters after the loss in Ottawa. “But I don’t think it’s any different, right? Like you just play with whoever you got, whoever’s ready to go, whoever’s healthy and up. They play. So, hope those guys will be just fine.”
The Avalanche enter Saturday’s test sitting third in the Central Division with 25 points through the first 20 games of the season, trailing the Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators.
After wrapping up the three-stop Canadian leg of their road swing in Montreal, they will head south to take on the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday before returning home for the second night of a back-to-back against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.