Morning skate notebook: MacKinnon could return next weekend

ST. LOUIS – Hello from the Gateway City, where the Avalanche plays the Blues tonight at CORPORATE BIG BANK CENTER PAVILLION. No, it’s the Scottrade Center still, though it’s supposed to be TD Ameritrade soon I guess.

I flew in this morning (and boy are my arms tired) and magically got a window seat when that seat – seat 2F – was the only seat unoccupied on the plane. I had the middle seat, and got to scooch over. So that was great. What wasn’t great? Coming out of the place I went to lunch about an hour ago, I didn’t notice that there was a step down right after coming out the door. So, I wrenched my right ankle – the same ankle I had replaced in 2016. I had the Infinity Ankle Replacement surgery, essentially a new titanium base bone with metal rods holding it in place, with a piece of polyethylene as new cartilage.

So, I limped all the way to the hotel (yes, I’m staying in a hotel, not an Airbnb) and it’s throbbing on me. I did the same thing a few weeks ago in Toronto, slipping on some ice walking out the door of the Airbnb I did stay in, and limped for about two days in pain. (Otherwise, the surgery was a godsend for me. I have been able to walk mostly pain-free since the surgery, after about 15 years or so of hobbling around on an ankle that had almost all the cartilage worn away between the ankle bones).

OK, about the Avs: Mikko Rantanen is back in, after missing one game with that lower-body injury. A.J. Greer comes out of the lineup up front, with Andrei Mironov the other healthy scratch.

Here are the lines:

Landeskog-Kerfoot-Rantanen

Compher-Wilson-Jost

Nieto-Soderberg-Comeau

Bourque-Toninato-Yakupov

DEFENSE

Zadorov-Johnson

Girard-Nemeth

Lindholm-Barrie

GOALIE

Bernier

NOTEBOOK:

• Jared Bednar said he’s hopeful that Nathan MacKinnon will return closer to the two-week mark, rather than the four-week mark. He said he thinks it could be in the “low two weeks.” MacKinnon was hurt nine days ago in Vancouver. So it’s possible – possible – he could return by next weekend, if all goes well.
• Semyon Varlamov will start Saturday night in Carolina.
• Bednar said the Avs have to get off to a better start against the Blues than they did a couple weeks ago here. This is just a really tough team to come back on. Mike Yeo plays a trap when he’s ahead, just like he did as coach in Minnesota.
• I talked some with Dominic Toninato. He’s still looking for that first career goal, and obviously really wants it. He’s had some chances lately, but just hasn’t put the biscuit in the basket yet. Otherwise, he’s really enjoying his first-year NHL experience. I’ll post the audio later in our Inside the Locker Room department.

Here is some video of Rantanen, talking with me not long ago: