DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon's 116 points is tied for the league lead with three games to go in the regular season. That may very well be the total he winds up with, too.
The Colorado Avalanche forward will sit out against Vancouver on Thursday night, marking the first game he's missed this season. He may also be sidelined this weekend for the final two regular season games as a way to both rest and heal up for the playoffs.
Asked if MacKinnon, who has appeared in 209 straight games, was out purely for rest purposes, coach Jared Bednar said, “he’s dealing with something, too. You get to this point in the year, all these guys are dealing with something."
It’s been a lot of hockey for MacKinnon, who was the MVP in helping Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. The fast-flying forward has 32 goals and 84 assists this season as he makes a case to win a second straight MVP title. He's tied with Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov for the most points this season.
The 29-year-old MacKinnon was the first skater to reach the 30, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 110-point marks this season.
“He's such a valuable player,” defenseman Cale Makar said. “Every single day, what he brings to our team is pretty incredible. In my mind, he's a runaway (MVP winner).”
MacKinnon isn't the only player sitting out the game against the Canucks. The Avalanche also will be without defensemen Ryan Lindgren (upper body) and Josh Manson (upper body), along with forward Jonathan Drouin (upper body).
Meanwhile, up the road in Loveland, Colorado, captain Gabriel Landeskog has joined the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League on a minor league conditioning assignment. He could play with the Eagles on Friday or Saturday — maybe even both — in his comeback bid after nearly three years without playing an NHL game. A knee injury and subsequent surgeries have sidelined Landeskog since he helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Landeskog could be activated for Game 1 of Colorado’s first-round playoff series if the conditioning assignment and additional practices go well. The Avalanche will enter the postseason as no worse than the Central Division’s No. 3 seed.
“The more excited he gets about a return, the more excited I get," Bednar said. "Because I know there’s been lots of peaks and valleys.
“When you’re talking about mental toughness, resilience, the work ethic that it takes to go through what he’s gone through, and have all those ups and downs and peaks and valleys along his recovery to get to the point where it’s possible he could play, that’s pretty exciting.”
Landeskog's teammates feel the same way.
“Everybody wants him to be able to come back from this and succeed,” Makar said. “Everybody's rooting for him in here."
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