It was 17 seconds into the power play. Not even four minutes into the game. Cale Makar rotated the puck to Nathan MacKinnon, who dished it back to Makar at the point. A quickly released shot was deflected into the net, and the Avalanche’s top power-play unit huddled together for a muted celebration of yet another goal.
It was expected at that point. On a roster where everything was inexplicably going wrong, one thing was right.
Then MacKinnon exited the game after three more minutes of ice time.
Since MacKinnon sustained an upper-body injury Dec.