Avalanche star center Nathan MacKinnon is expected to miss approximately four weeks with an upper-body injury, the team announced Tuesday evening.
MacKinnon sustained the injury in the first period of Colorado’s 5-3 loss at the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday. It was unclear the exact cause — coach Jared Bednar had “no idea” how it occurred when he asked after the game. MacKinnon was evaluated and deemed unable to return at the second intermission.
Colorado (13-9-1) is also missing Valeri Nichushkin, Evan Rodrigues, Gabriel Landeskog, Bo Byram, Darren Helm and Kurtis MacDermid, plus rookies Jean-Luc Foudy and Shane Bowers.