SUNRISE, Fla. — Star center Nathan MacKinnon will be a game-time decision Friday when the Avalanche plays the Florida Panthers. MacKinnon suffered a deep bruise to his leg/hip in Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime loss at Pittsburgh and did not participate in Friday’s morning skate.
“His leg’s pretty sore. He got hit there the other night by (Patric) Hornqvist,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I give him a lot of credit — I know he was hurting on the bench the whole game and he battled through it and ends up getting us a big goal in the third period and has a really good third period for us. But he’s questionable (tonight).”
MacKinnon has played in all 82 regular-season games in two of the past three years. If he doesn’t play against the Panthers, Nazem Kadri will step into the top-line role. Third-line center J.T. Compher will slide to the second line and replace MacKinnon on the No. 1 power-play unit.
Valeri Nichushkin, a healthy scratch at Pittsburgh, will play a fourth-line role if MacKinnon doesn’t make the lineup.
Also, defenseman Nikita Zadorov is back in the lineup after being scratched against the Penguins. He’ll replace Mark Barberio.
In goal, Philipp Grubauer will make his sixth start of the season but Bednar said he’ll likely go with backup Pavel Francouz on Saturday when the Avs complete a back-to-back set at Tampa Bay.
Jared Bednar after AM skate in FLA #Avs https://t.co/JyYKntl36V
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers) October 18, 2019
