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SALT LAKE CITY — NHL teams have had enough trouble containing Nathan MacKinnon the past two seasons. Don’t make him angry.
MacKinnon, the reigning league MVP and current scoring leader, logged his first fight in three seasons Friday night during a 4-1 win for the Colorado Avalanche against Utah HC at Delta Center.
The last time MacKinnon dropped the gloves had consequences, but the Avalanche also won the Stanley Cup four months later.
“I don’t know. We just got tied up and decided to fight,” MacKinnon said. “It’s been a little bit. Last time I fought, I broke my finger, so I tried to chill out for a bit. Sometimes the anger comes back out.”
MacKinnon had the puck below the Utah goal line late in the second period. The Avs were ahead 1-0 in what had already been a feisty, tightly contested game with plenty of post-whistle shenanigans.
He sent the puck out to the left point and absorbed a hit from Utah’s Barrett Hayton. A few seconds earlier, Hayton had met MacKinnon along the left wall for a puck battle. MacKinnon ended that encounter with a shove and then a check to the back.
The second time around, there was more shoving, and then MacKinnon was ready to throw some hands.
“I had no problem with it,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s within the play. Think they’re playing each other hard down in the corner and he had enough.”
This was Hayton’s first official NHL bout, per Hockey Fights. It’s No. 9 for MacKinnon, but the first since he had two in March 2022. The second one, with Minnesota’s Mathew Dumba, led to the broken finger.
There was immediate concern about the injury at the time. MacKinnon ended up missing one game. Then he had 10 goals in his final 13 regular-season games and 13 more in 20 playoff contests en route to the championship.
MacKinnon won league MVP honors for the first time last season and is on track to be a top contender again. He’s up to 60 points in 37 games. His three-point night against Utah extended his lead in the scoring race to seven, and his teammate Mikko Rantanen is now alone in second place with 53.
While Avs fans might hold their collective breath when MacKinnon drops the gloves, maybe future opponents should feel some unease as well.
“We’ve talked about this in years past. I obviously don’t want him doing it all the time,” Bednar said. “He’s a big part of our team, and he has to go sit for five (minutes) and you risk an injury. But I think when you’re running hot and your emotions are high and it’s something you want to do, then I think it’s also part of your game.
“He’s not going to wait for someone to come to his rescue. It’s just not his mentality.”
The Avs also traded Ondrej Pavel and a 2027 third-round pick Saturday to the Nashville Predators for Juuso Parssinen and a seventh-round selection in 2026.
Parssinen, 23, has two goals and five points in 15 games for Nashville this season. The Avs have been rotating options on the fourth line, with rookie Ivan Ivan the only regular. Parssinen is listed at 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds, which immediately makes him one of the biggest of Colorado’s depth forwards.
He had 14 goals and 37 points in 89 NHL games over the previous two seasons. Parssinen was a seventh-round pick in 2019 by Nashville. Parssinen is making the league-minimum $775,000 and will be a restricted free agent after this season.
Pavel, 24, was an undrafted free agent who has played two games for the Avalanche in his career.
Footnotes: Jonathan Drouin practiced Saturday with the team. He could return to the lineup Tuesday against Winnipeg. Drouin has played in five games this season while dealing with an injury he sustained opening night. He scored twice in his last appearance, Nov. 23 against Florida.
The Avs sent John Ludvig to the Eagles for a conditioning stint. The defenseman has played eight games for the club, but none, despite being healthy, since Dec. 5.
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