The Avalanche were without center Nathan MacKinnon on Thursday for their intrasquad scrimmage.
The Hart Trophy finalist missed his first phase 3 training camp session joining young rookie Cale Makar, who was seen skated before the rest of his team took the ice.
“I can’t comment on it,” Bednar said of MacKinnon’s absence. “You know I can’t give you an update on it.”
Bednar is abiding by the NHL’s league-wide protocol that requires all coaches to refrain from providing any type of medical updates on players be it an injury or a positive test. The coach also was unable to tell us if it was a scheduled maintenance day for the Avalanche’s leading scorer.
Center J.T. Compher was between Andre Burakovsky and Mikko Rantanen in MacKinnon’s usual spot for team burgundy. The rest of the lines up front were jumbled on both sides to make up for the loss of Colorado’s top forward.
Burgundy
Burakovsky – Compher – Rantanen
Landeskog – Bowers – Calvert
Nieto – Bellemare – O’Connor
White
Donskoi – Kadri – Nichushkin
Tynan – Namestnikov – Jost
Dries – Kamenev – MacDonald