It was a long, tough road trip for the Colorado Avalanche — especially Nathan MacKinnon.

The result of the Avalanche versus Lightning game did not end in favor of Colorado, and neither did the puck vs. Nathan MacKinnon's face in that matchup. The puck won that battle when it popped up and broke the 28-year-old elite forward's nose. 

MacKinnon said it wasn't the first time he had broken it — which is not a surprise as many players have broken their beaks in the sport of hockey. 

In any other sport or life situation — for most people — it would be at least days or even weeks before they would be able to get back to normal activities. Not MacKinnon. He was back on the ice about six minutes later to play the remainder of the game with a slightly longer visor on his helmet. 

While his face shows the wear and tear from the Florida games — he went down hard on his chin in the game against the Panthers — it did not slow him down. He has some bruising around his eyes and on his nose but there was no visible bruise or cut on his chin. 

MacKinnon said he was glad to be back in Denver after the long 12-day road trip, which the team went 1-4-1. Colorado's top center only had five points in the six games on the East Coast but is focused on the next game and moving on from that stint. 

"I'm just thinking about tomorrow, though I don't know. Hopefully we can win tomorrow.

"I think we need to learn from our mistakes. We watched a lot of video today of the past few weeks so the message is clear what we have to do better," MacKinnon said. 

The Halifax, Nova Scotia native is very regimented with his conditioning and focuses on it as one of the most important aspects of his game. While this past road trip was tough on the team as a whole, MacKinnon said it didn't affect his routine off the ice. 

"We have everything we need. All the resources, obviously it's the NHL," MacKinnon said. "They do a great job, spend a lot of money for us to be ready to play and yeah, there's no difference."

The Avalanche face off against the Arizona Coyotes at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Ball Arena. 

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