Avalanche HC Jared Bednar’s Nathan MacKinnon take hints at Game 4 availability

Coming into the Western Conference Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Colorado Avalanche were the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. Three games and two blown leads later, the Avs have their backs against the wall in a 3-0 hole, one loss away from going home for the summer.

Plenty of things have plagued Colorado so far in this series. Defensive breakdowns, inconsistent goaltending and some poor performance from some of their stars have all come back to bite Colorado in these three losses. However, injuries have also played a part. Star defenseman Cale Makar missed the first two games of the series with a shoulder injury, and Nathan MacKinnon went down with a knee injury during Game 3.

MacKinnon was clearly hampered by the injury on Sunday night, leaving his availability for Tuesday night’s Game 5 in question. On Monday, head coach Jared Bednar talked about MacKinnon’s potential availability, per Mark Lazerus of The Athletic.

“Jared Bednar said that even if all Nathan MacKinnon can do is play on the power play and in empty-net situations, he’d still take that over anybody else,” Lazerus reported on X, formerly Twitter. “Hard to imagine MacKinnon doesn’t at least try to cut it out in Game 4.”

MacKinnon did return on Sunday night, but he played mostly just on power plays and with the empty net. He was clearly not skating at full speed because of the injury and didn’t have his usual explosiveness.

The injury to MacKinnon appeared very painful on the ice, as the star center blocked a shot right on the outside of his knee. He stayed down on the ice and eventually left the game before returning in the third period.

If the Avs are going to come back in this series, they are going to need whatever they can get out of MacKinnon. The Knights have simply been the better team so far, especially late in games as the Avs get worn down. It has become very hard for Colorado to score goals late in games against the Knights, leaving Colorado in need of MacKinnon’s skill on the ice even if he is limited with his movement and his skating.

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