This is not how the Avalanche wanted to start Game 7.
Star center Nathan MacKinnon left for the locker room after appearing to suffer a right arm injury.
It appeared MacKinnon was unable to hold up his right arm as he skated off the ice and to the locker room.
Here’s the injury to Nathan MacKinnon. #SJSharks #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/NG6FSqGl1E
— Brodie Brazil (@BrodieNBCS) May 9, 2019
MacKinnon has been a star this postseason, just like he was all year.
He has six goals and seven assists (13 points) in 11 games for Colorado.
He tallied his second straight 97-plus point season this year, finishing with 99 (41 goals, 58 assists) in 2018-19.
The Avalanche tied up the series in Game 6 and will look to head on to the Western Conference finals with a win over San Jose.
Update: MacKinnon returned to the game a few minutes later and nearly scored on his first shift on the ice.
However, it came after the Sharks scored two goals in his absence to take a 2-0 lead.
The Sharks won the game 3-2. MacKinnon spoke about his injury after the game.
“I have a grade 2 or 3 AC sprain and I got shot up after, or mid-first, I guess, and they checked to see if I cracked my collarbone and it wasn’t cracked so I was good. Just got a shot and went back out,” MacKinnon said, via CBS Denver.
“I didn’t really feel it after that. After the second it started wearing off a little bit, but you know, I’ve done that a few times so I knew exactly what happened right when I got hurt. I did it last year, I’ve done it growing up, in Junior I did it so I knew it happened. It sucks that I even got hurt. It’s been a long time, a year and a half, and it happened in Game 7 of the second round so I was pretty pissed.”