Ok ‘fess up! Who has the voodoo dolls of the Colorado Avalanche players and thinks it funny to injure them one by one? Because, to quote the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels character Rory Breaker, “I ain’t fucking laughing Nicholas”. In case you haven’t heard yet Colorado lost to the L.A. Kings on Monday night at Staples Center, but more importantly lost another player in the process. And not just any player. They lost Nathan frickin’ MacKinnon. I mean C’MON!!!!!!
The Avalanche went into the game missing Nazem Kadri (Lower Body), Mikko Rantanen (Upper Body), Andre Burakovsky (Lower Body), Matt Calvert (Lower Body), Colin Wilson (Lower Body), Cale Makar (Upper Body) and Philipp Grubauer (Lower Body) while Vladislav Namestnikov was a game time decision. He ended up playing which meant emergency call up Martin Kaut was ineligible and sat in the press box.
Let’s put this into perspective. The Avalanche are currently missing possibly the best player in the league, an elite defenseman, their starting goaltender, two thirds of their first line forward group, two thirds of their second line forward group and two depth players who can play anywhere from the second line down. In fact, Matt Calvert has played first line minutes this season and been more than serviceable.
Then there’s also the fact Nathan MacKinnon was on course to break the 100 point regular season mark for the first time in his career. At 93 points with 13 games remaining you would have bet your house on him reaching that milestone. Depending on how many games he misses he still might beat it, but this will definitely put a fork in the road.
The Kings scored two first period goals just over a minute apart to take a comfortable lead they would never relinquish despite the Avalanche cutting it to one in the third period. Alex Iafallo scored the Kings third with 5:25 remaining in the third to all but kill the game off and give L.A. a deserved 3-1 win.
Colorado could have gone top of the Central Division with a win after the St. Louis Blues lost 2-1 to the Florida Panthers earlier in the day, but right now first place in the division seems less important than shortening that injury list mentioned above before the Playoffs begin.
If I wasn’t hooked on Hockey before, I am now!
If anyone’s looking for me over the next few days I’ll be constantly refreshing Twitter looking for news on the extent of MacKinnon’s injury. Four leaf clover in one hand. Rabbits foot in the other. I might even wear my horseshoe necklace. I mean it’s worth a shot right!?! It can’t possibly get any worse… Actually forget I said that.
