Colorado Avalanche fans felt their heart stop for a moment as they watched Nathan MacKinnon skate off the ice and head to the room just over one minute into Game 7 on Wednesday night. However, it didn’t take very long for the Avs superstar to return to the action as he was back on the ice before the end of the first period.
The 23-year-old skated off the ice in obvious pain and a lot of Avalanche fans thought the game was going to be over before it truly got underway, but with the season on the line there was no way MacKinnon was going to sit out the rest of the night. Following the game, MacKinnon revealed the injury he suffered early into the game and how he managed to return to action in no time.
“I have a grade 2 or 3 AC sprain and I got shot up after, or mid-first, I guess, and they checked to see if I cracked my collarbone and it wasn’t cracked so I was good. Just got a shot and went back out,” said MacKinnon.
“I didn’t really feel it after that. After the second it started wearing off a little bit, but you know, I’ve done that a few times so I knew exactly what happened right when I got hurt. I did it last year, I’ve done it growing up, in Junior I did it so I knew it happened. It sucks that I even got hurt. It’s been a long time, a year and a half, and it happened in Game 7 of the second round so I was pretty pissed.”
MacKinnon returned to the game with just over five minutes left in the opening period and ended up playing nearly 21 minutes.
(H/T Twitter/MichaelCBS4)
