"You might have to kill him to get him off the ice," Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood said. "Just kind of the person he is, the competitor he is. He obviously proves that every time he's on the ice. He wants to win more than anybody. Just another example."
MacKinnon was injured at 12:15 of the second when he blocked a shot from Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore that appeared to get him on the inside of his right knee. MacKinnon crumpled to the ice for a moment, was able to get to his knees to clear the puck out of the zone but then went back to his knees. He was able to get to the bench and play two more shifts before going to the Avalanche locker room.
He was not on the bench to start the third period but did return. MacKinnon played four shifts for a total of 4:05 in the third period, including 1:59 on the power play.
Even if MacKinnon, who leads Colorado with seven goals and 15 points in 12 Stanley Cup Playoff games, is healthy, the Presidents' Trophy winners have a massive hill to climb.
Teams that fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-7 series in the round before the Stanley Cup Final are 0-49 all-time.
"Everyone's down in the dumps right now, and that's what the next 36 hours are for -- to get our team back and make sure our focus is in the right place," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "It seems like a tough hill to climb, too, obviously especially against a tough team like Vegas. You just have to break it down a shift at a time, five at a time, a period at a time, a game at a time. ... If they have a push, then we have to push back. We just have to break it down now, chip away at it.
"It's as low as it can get."
