Nathan MacKinnon made his National Hockey League regular season debut for the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday, and it was a night to remember.
Not just for his first two career assists, or the 6-1 Colorado win over the Anaheim Ducks. MacKinnon, who the Avalanche chose with the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NHL Draft, also came close to getting in a fight with Ducks defenseman Ben Lovejoy midway through the second period.
The two would meet again later in the evening.
It’s believed the knee-on-knee hit that Lovejoy threw on MacKinnon in the third period was one of the contributing factors to a melee at the benches involving the two head coaches - Patrick Roy for Colorado and Bruce Boudreau for Anaheim - at the end of the game.
“I was not very happy, first of all, seeing their defenseman (Lovejoy) kneeing our guy (MacKinnon). That was a knee-to-knee hit and it should have been a penalty in my opinion,” Roy said after the game, according to The Denver Post.
“Certainly didn’t like that. When it’s 6-0 I don’t think this game needs this type of cheap shot.”
Don't have the NHL history book on hand but I'm betting Patrick Roy is the first to get a game misconduct in his NHL coaching debut #Avs
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers) October 3, 2013
A video of the dust-up at the benches shows Roy yelling and pointing at a player, before he turns his attention to Boudreau.
Roy shoved the glass twice, and Boudreau afterward called Roy’s actions “bush league.”