MacKinnon and Makar Both Exit With Lower-Body Injuries in Avalanche OT Loss

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar both left the Colorado Avalanche’s game in Ottawa on Thursday with lower-body injuries, hurt minutes apart in the second period of a 4-3 overtime loss. MacKinnon grabbed his right side after a collision with Artem Zub and never returned, while Makar lasted four seconds on one shift, came back for 23 seconds, and then left for good. The Avalanche still took a point, but coach Jared Bednar admitted afterwards that he does not know whether either player will be available on Saturday in Montreal.

How did MacKinnon get hurt?

On a reverse hit that went wrong. MacKinnon’s last shift came with 8:15 remaining in the second period, NHL.com reports, when he tried to reverse-hit Senators defenceman Artem Zub and grabbed at his right side. He stayed on the bench for a few minutes before heading down the tunnel, and he did not play again. It was the second period of a game in which MacKinnon had already been the Avalanche’s most dangerous player, and his exit changed the shape of the night. MacKinnon has already had a bruising season, leaving a game in Dallas bloody after a fight with Roope Hintz, but this one was a hockey play with no fight attached to it.

What happened to Makar?

Something quieter, and possibly more worrying. Makar took a shift at 10:44 of the second period that lasted only four seconds before he headed to the locker room, NHL.com reports. He briefly returned for a 23-second shift that ended with 5:20 remaining, then stayed on the bench for the rest of the period and never came back for the third. The concern is that this did not come out of nowhere: Makar left practice on Sunday for precautionary reasons with a lower-body issue, and Thursday was only his second game back. A four-second shift is not a player testing an injury, it is a player finding out it is still there.

How did Ottawa win the game?

In overtime, after Colorado had survived the third period without its two best players. Shane Pinto scored twice, including the winner, Reuters reports, intercepting a blind pass from Avalanche forward Parker Kelly and beating Scott Wedgewood from the slot. Linus Ullmark made 25 saves in his return after missing nine games with a lower-body injury of his own, which made the night a strange mirror image: one team’s goalie coming back from the same kind of injury while the other team’s two stars went down with it. The Senators improved to 12-6-2 and are 3-0-1 in their past four games.

How much do the Avalanche need these two?

More than any other pair in the league, arguably. MacKinnon leads the Avalanche and ranks fifth in the NHL with 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 20 games, NHL.com reports. Makar is third on the team and third among all NHL defencemen with 23 points (five goals, 18 assists) in 19 games. Between them they drive the power play, the transition game and most of the scoring chances, so playing half a game without them and then facing Montreal on Saturday is a real test of the depth. Other teams are learning the same lesson this month, with star players going down and unproven replacements suddenly carrying the load.

What happens next?

Montreal on Saturday, then the road trip ends at the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday. Bednar told reporters he was unsure whether either player would be in the lineup against the Canadiens, Reuters reports, though both will travel with the team. The morning skate will be the first clue, and the lineup card the second. The longer question is the diagnosis: the Avalanche announced only lower-body injuries, which is the standard holding line until scans and a second look, and a timeline will only come when the team is ready to give one. The Jets have been living with that kind of uncertainty for weeks, and it does not get easier with time.

What did the Avalanche say about it?

Landeskog was blunt about what was lost and calm about what comes next. “Obviously, they’re two of the best players in the world, so you like to have them, no doubt,” the captain said. “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.” Bednar praised the group for a gutsy effort, saying the team was running without a couple of horses for half the game and still took a big point. Landeskog has been at the centre of the Avalanche’s strange season already, and his answer here was the steady one: the show goes on, and the medical room decides how long for.