On Tuesday, Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar that Center Nathan MacKinnon would be out 2-4 weeks with an upper-body injury.
MacKinnon sustained the injury during the second period of Tuesday’s overtime game against the Vancouver Canucks. The Avalanche lost the game 4-3.
The 22-year-old is second in the NHL with 61 points (24 goals, 37 assists) in 49 games, trailing Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, who has 64 points (27 goals, 37 assists) in 50 games.
During this past Sunday, Jared Bednar represented the Avalanche during the 2018 NHL All-Star game in Tampa Bay.
During the press conference, head coach Nathan MacKinnon had this to say:
“It’s not a great feeling when you lose as guy like that, especially when you know what he does for our team,” Bednar said. “But I’m excited for the opportunity it’s going to present some other guys here like [Alexander] Kerfoot. It’s an opportunity for Mikko [Rantanen] and [Gabriel Landeskog] to try and carry that line and continue to do what they were doing with a new centerman. We have a real talented guy in Kerfoot going in there, we like what he’s been doing with our team, what he’s done on the power play, so he’ll filter in there as well.
“Everyone has to pick up the slack, there is no one player that can fill in Nate’s shoes at this point. We’re going to need a little bit more from everyone else and hopefully get the job done as a team.”