The avalanche are contractually obligated to play all of their games remaining in the season.

So all I ask is no more injuries, please.

Aves lose to the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in overtime.

Look, the result of this game and all of the Aves remaining games mean nothing to them, ultimately.

And in this particular one, the result meant a lot to Vegas as they're jockeying for

position in the Pacific Division, and this was the game that clinched them a playoff spot for sure.

Given that, I think the abs actually played pretty well for a team that probably wasn't going

100% for most of the game. In particular, surprisingly, Nathan McKinnon was actually going well.

Lots of shots on goal, a lot of quality plays in the offensive zone. Now, the puck wouldn't go in the net for him, but still, it was nice to see Nathan McKinnon looking good. I'll break down the goals for you in a minute because that's what I do here when I'm not making a meme five-second review. But far more importantly for the avalanche in this game are injuries. One of them being Josh Manson, who left the game at the end of the second period,

did not return and is listed as upper body injury.

Unfortunately, that's all we know at this point.

The abs did not practice today, and we just have no more information there.

Hopefully he's fine and we'll be good to go for the playoffs, but we just don't know.

And part of the reason we don't know is the other injury, which while it does not affect the

ab's lineup, it may well affect the avs bench as much or more. During the game, Jared Bednar

took a puck to the face. He immediately left the game, did not return. Dave Haxstall took over

head coaching duties. I'm not going to get into that, because I don't want to. And today, we now know that Bednar has, quote, facial fractures and a corneal abrasion. That's bad. Luckily, Jared Bednar doesn't play in the games, so he hopefully can return quicker, but we may well end up seeing Jared Bednar with one eye

wearing a full cage on the bench while he's coaching in the playoffs. It could be interesting.

They also did say that it did not require surgery or anything like that, so hopefully it's

not too too bad for Bednar. And there's three games left in the season, so just stop getting

hurt, abs, please, I beg. Into the game itself, the first period was the ab's best period of the game.

They outshued Vegas 15 to 7, a lot of quality stuff.

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