Nathan MacKinnon showed a lot of toughness vs Lightning on Thursday

You can say, “Well, he’s a hockey player,” but Colorado Avalanche star center iceman Nathan MacKinnon showed a ton of toughness on Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

MacKinnon got beat up quite a bit during that game, including taking a puck right under his eye. The puck appeared to have hit MacKinnon’s visor but also made contact with his face, which ended up causing him to bleed. No official word has been announced regarding his status, but it looked to me like he suffered a broken nose on the play.

It was a concerning situation, seeing blood everywhere after that play.

The craziest part of the whole thing is that MacKinnon only missed like six minutes. SIX minutes. It takes a lot of toughness to come back from such a terrible scary thing like getting hit by a puck. I get it, MacKinnon is a hockey player. It’s not that surprising, but it is impressive. As I said, his diagnosis hasn’t been announced, but it looked to me like the result was a broken nose.

This isn’t the first time MacKinnon suffered such an injury. He also suffered one in February of 2022.

The Colorado Avalanche need to have MacKinnon and their other stars in the lineup as much as possible going forward. They’re returning home after a long set of away games in which they won just one of six. They look to find ways to win at home. It'll start on Sunday against the Arizona Coyotes.

MacKinnon looks to continue his strong season in which he is a favorite to take home the Hart Trophy. If he isn’t on the ice, there’s no way he’ll finish with that possibility. That being said, bigger goals are set by him and the Colorado Avalanche as they try to stay atop/near the Central Division.