Avs Off-Day Notebook: MacKinnon update

ENGLEWOOD – A quick post-practice update here, on this warmer, sunnier Tuesday:

Nathan MacKinnon skated, took some shots, handled pucks, looked like a real hockey player again. But, unfortunately:

He’s not ready yet. MacKinnon wore the dreaded non-contact pumpkin sweater at the roughly one-hour practice. So, he won’t play Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens. Will he play by Friday night in Winnipeg?

“I don’t know that,” was the unusually tight-lipped answer from Jared Bednar.

“He’s comin,'” Bednar said. “He jumped in some non-contact stuff today. So, that’s where he’s at.” MacKinnon was hurt two weeks ago tonight, and the original prognosis was 2-4 weeks, to what is believed to be a left shoulder injury.

One player that will play is goalie Semyon Varlamov. He’ll get the start against the Canadiens, hoping to get his first win in quite a while (most of which because of injury, of course). It’s a really big start for Varly I think, not just because it’s a big game for the Avs (they’re all big right now), but this is a real chance for him to perhaps grab the top job back from Jonathan Bernier.

He played pretty well in Carolina the other night, so Bednar is obviously banking on him continuing an upward trajectory.

Neither Sven Andrighetto nor Mark Barberio practiced, though Bednar did say Barberio is “starting to feel better.” Andrighetto’s leg injury obviously just hasn’t responded very well to treatment. He went from day-to-day to “who knows?”

Blake Comeau also did not practice, with a lower-body injury that will keep him out a third straight game.

I’ll be posting a fun “BSN 10” Q&A with Alexander Kerfoot soon, which I think you’ll like.