The injury-depleted Colorado Avalanche suffered another blow to their lineup on Monday night when forward Nathan MacKinnon left during the second period of the team's 3-1 loss to Los Angeles Kings with a lower-body injury.

“He leaves the game, I’m concerned right away,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I know that he wasn’t good enough to come back in the game tonight, so, yeah, I’d say that is concerning.”

The MVP candidate's injury is the latest blow to a team that is already without forwards Mikko Rantanen (shoulder), Nazem Kadri (leg), Andre Burakovsky (lower body), and Matt Calvert (lower body). The team is also without defenceman Cale Makar (upper body) and goaltender Philipp Grubauer (lower body).

The 24-year-old leads the Avalanche in scoring with 35 goals and 58 assists in 69 games.