Winger Jordan Caron, acquired Monday from Boston in the trade that sent Maxime Talbot to the Bruins, skated on a line with Matt Duchene and Jarome Iginla at the Avalanche practice Tuesday at Family Sports Center.
Also, Nathan MacKinnon — who suffered a broken nose when hit by Minnesota’s Sean Bergenheim in the third period Saturday — was back on the line with Ryan O’Reilly and Gabriel Landeskog, apparently ending his temporary deployment on the third and fourth lines. The irony was he was stepping back in on that line for Talbot after Talbot, Talbot’s wife, and their infant son left town Tuesday morning, leaving MacKinnon as the sole resident at the Talbot home in Cherry Creek.
“Home alone!” MacKinnon, 19, said with a smile.
He added, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m sure in a few days, we’ll figure something out. … There’s not a whole lot of season left and I’ll be OK if I have to be on my own. My parents will be in for a little bit, too.”
MacKinnon was benched for most of the third period at Dallas Friday and then used on the third and fourth lines at even strength in the 3-1 loss to the the Wild.
“I know people made a big deal of those two games,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “To me, it’s nothing. It’s part of a process. The game against Dallas, I just thought he didn’t play his best and actually what happened was the three lines were playing really well. We won the game.
“Last game, he played 15 minutes with a broken nose and then he missed a minute or two because he was not available. Again, it’s just part of the process and I had a good conversation with him this morning. He’s a very important player for us. We just want him to be a leader on and off the ice and I think that’s what he’s learning. He knows how much respect I have for him and how important he is to our team. He has to, every night, play at a high level. That’s what you expect from your premier players.”
Joey Hishon, recalled from Lake Erie in the wake of Talbot and Paul Carey’s departure in the trade, took turns with Danny Briere on the fourth line, joining Cody McLeod and Marc-Andre Cliche.
The practice was a few hours after the NHL announced that fines levied against Landeskog ($5,000) and McLeod ($3,091.40) for their actions in the final seconds Saturday. That’s the maximum the league could have fined them under the collective bargaining agreement and is tied to their salaries.
The league announcement said McLeod entered the game “on a legal line change for the purpose of starting an altercation with 8.1 seconds remaining in regulation. Directly off a face-off at center ice, McLeod launched into a body check against Minnesota center Mikael Granlund and then engaged in a fight with Wild forward Charlie Coyle. McLeod was assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, a major penalty for fighting and a misconduct penalty.”
Landeskog’s infraction, the league noted, also drew a misconduct and was for “throwing a punch at Minnesota forward Mikko Koivu while both players were on their respective benches with 3.3 seconds remaining in regulation.”
Said Landeskog: “I was kind of expecting it, I guess. I guess I kind of deserve it.”
Why did he throw the punch?
“Heat of the moment,” Landeskog said.
Roy said of the fines to his players: “I was surprised in some ways. But I think it’s an automatic rule with Cody. I was more disappointed reading the paper from one of our reporters than anything else. Sometimes I guess we see things differently. Cody was playing with the first line all night long. And then they put Charlie Coyle on the ice. Why not him there? I thought it was more important and it was more Coyle going after him than anything else.
“And then Landy, I didn’t even see the punch. If there was one, I totally missed it.” Roy smiled and added, clearly joking, “Five grand, he should have hit him, make it worth it at least.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
