MacKinnon says injuries doomed Avalanche in Game 7 loss to Stars

Nathan MacKinnon's expressions told the story for the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.

Mouth agape, the center looked like he was in shock. Head down, the look of a man processing disappointment. A quick look at the opponent celebrating, almost as if he needed to see it again to realize the dream, at least in 2020, was dead.
"We felt like we could win, and I still feel like we could have won," MacKinnon said. "It's just unfortunate."
The Avalanche came close, but no one cares about that now, not after losing 5-4 in overtime to the Dallas Stars in Game 7 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.
It's the second straight season the Avalanche were eliminated in Game 7 of the second round. They lost 3-2 at the San Jose Sharks last year.
"One-goal games," MacKinnon said. "It's tough. We've got to find a way to break through. There's no moral victories here. We came here to win and we didn't get the job done."
The sting of this one is worse, because for the first time in his seven NHL seasons, MacKinnon felt the Avalanche finally had all the pieces to win the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, many of those pieces were unable to help in Game 7.
Colorado was without its top two goalies (Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz), its captain (forward Gabriel Landeskog), arguably its best shutdown defenseman (Erik Johnson) and his replacement (Conor Timmins), a productive middle-six forward (Joonas Donskoi), and one of its top forechecking bottom-six forwards (Matt Calvert).
"I would have liked to see our team fully healthy, that's for sure," said MacKinnon, who did not score a point for the only time in 15 games this postseason. "Lost a lot of key guys. That's the way it is. You can call it an excuse or whatever you want, but that's just the way it is. We lost a lot of key guys to our team. Obviously, it just [stinks] we caught the injury bug again. We had it all year. Yeah, it stings. Our motivation, too, was win this game, get guys back, keep making our run, keep pushing."

Coach Jared Bednar said the Avalanche likely wouldn't have gotten any of the injured players back even if they had won and advanced to the Western Conference Final.
Colorado battled back to win Games 5 and 6, and they were in position to complete the comeback Friday, leading 3-2 entering the third period and 4-3 with 3:40 remaining.
"We've got 3:40 to play our hearts out and you're moving on," Bednar said.
But Dallas scored 10 seconds later when a turnover by Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri led to a rush chance and the second of three goals by Stars forward Joel Kiviranta, who was playing his first game in the series.
"Great shot by that guy," said Avalanche goalie Michael Hutchinson, who made 30 saves in his third straight start. "I don't know how he put it in short side, elbow in."
Colorado pushed back, and J.T. Compher had a redirection go off the post with 1:29 remaining.
After surviving a late flurry from the Stars, the Avalanche had the first four shots on goal in overtime. But they left Kiviranta alone in the slot and he made them pay with a one-timer past Hutchinson at 7:24.
It was Dallas' 28th goal of the series. Colorado scored 29.
"We just couldn't keep the puck out of the net," MacKinnon said. "We gave them really good looks. We definitely scored enough goals to win. We've got to do a better job in front of the goalies. Everybody."
That might be MacKinnon's and the Avalanche's biggest takeaway for why they lost. Simply put, the gave up too much and were 4-for-32 on the power play, which didn't help. But it's impossible to ignore the injuries.
"That's a lot to overcome in a short period of time, one playoff series," Bednar said. "You've got a couple guys out of your lineup, it just keeps adding and adding and it just gets harder and harder.
"The lack of durability in our group in this playoff series hurt us for sure. There's no question."
MacKinnon was asked if it's even reasonable to assess the Avalanche based on this series, this Game 7 loss, because of all the injuries.
"It's a tricky question," he said.
What he said next might tell the story of the Colorado's future.
"I don't think we should change anything," MacKinnon said. "If we have the exact same team next year, I feel we could win it next year. We've got to find a way to stay healthy."