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MacKinnon, Saad expected to play in Game 1 against Blues |
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Rick Sadowski
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Great news for the Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon and Brandon Saad are expected to play Monday in Game 1 of the best-of-7 Stanley Cup First Round against the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena.
“I expect Nathan and Saader to be back, possibly (defenseman Conor) Timmins,” coach Jared Bednar said Saturday after an optional practice. “Those would be the three guys that are possibly eyeing a return for Monday night.”
MacKinnon missed the final two regular-season games and four of the final five with a lower-body injury. Saad missed the final 10 games with a lower-body injury.
Timmins might be available after sustaining an undisclosed injury Thursday when the Avalanche defeated the Los Angeles Kings 5-1 to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy and No. 1 seed in the Honda West Division.
MacKinnon, who centers the top line with left wing Gabriel Landeskog and right wing Mikko Rantanen, had 65 points (20 goals, 45 assists) in 48 games. He had 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists) in 15 playoff games last season when the Avalanche advanced to the Western Conference Second Round, losing in seven games to the Dallas Stars.
“It’s huge,” Bednar said of MacKinnon’s return. “I mean, it is obvious he’s one of our stars and a guy that really looks forward to this time of year. We saw what he can do in the playoffs last year. He took his game to a whole new level and to have him out there leading us with Landy and Mikko I think would be ideal and it’s something that we need and he’s such a big part of our hockey team, especially driving our offense. To have him from the start of the series would be what the doctor ordered.”
Saad had 24 points (15 goals, nine assists) in 44 games in his first season in Colorado after a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks. He spent most of the season playing left wing on the second line with center Nazem Kadri and right wing Andre Burakovsky.
Timmins had seven assists in 31 games. He was the Avalanche’s second-round pick (No. 32) in the 2017 NHL Draft.
Bednar said defenseman Bowen Byram, who missed the final 23 games because of an upper-body injury, is getting closer to returning. The No. 4 pick in the 2019 draft, Byram had two assists in 19 games.
“He’s getting better every day and is now skating with the team, which I think is going to help him a lot,” Bednar said. “I think he’s gotten to the point now where he can skate with our group. He’s been mostly skating on his own and in just real small groups.
“Now he’s feeling a lot better and he’s on the mend and the next thing for him will be getting into skates like (Saturday) with a lot of guys and taking contact and we’ll see where he gets to. He’s missed a significant amount of time for us, but we’re trying to get him back up to speed and hopefully he’s an option for us at some point.”
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I asked Devon Toews about Blues center Ryan O’Reilly’s prediction that they would win the series.
"We're going to have some fun and we're going to beat them," O'Reilly said Thursday.
Hockey players aren't usually too big on smack talk, even if O'Reilly's quotes were hardly inflammatory.
“I don’t know, I don’t know him as a person,” Toews said. “They can say what they want, it’s out of our control. We’re focused on what we can control, that’s how we compete, day in and day out, game by game and the same details too, the things that make us good, so I didn’t see any comments.
“I don’t follow along with anything, so none of that really bothers us, I don’t think.”
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