DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon's 116 points is tied for the league lead with three games to go in the regular season. That may very well be the total he winds up with, too.
The Colorado Avalanche forward will sit out against Vancouver on Thursday night, marking the first game he's missed this season. He may also be sidelined this weekend for the final two regular season games as a way to both rest and heal up for the playoffs.
Asked if MacKinnon, who has appeared in 209 straight games, was out purely for rest purposes, coach Jared Bednar said, “he’s dealing with something, too. You get to this point in the year, all these guys are dealing with something."
It’s been a lot of hockey for MacKinnon, who was the MVP in helping Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. The fast-flying forward has 32 goals and 84 assists this season as he makes a case to win a second straight MVP title. He's tied with Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov for the most points this season.
The 29-year-old MacKinnon was the first skater to reach the 30, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 110-point marks this season.
“He's such a valuable player,” defenseman Cale Makar said. “Every single day, what he brings to our team is pretty incredible. In my mind, he's a runaway (MVP winner).”
MacKinnon isn't the only player sitting out the game against the Canucks. The Avalanche also will be without defensemen Ryan Lindgren (upper body) and Josh Manson (upper body), along with forward Jonathan Drouin (upper body).
Meanwhile, up the road in Loveland, Colorado, captain Gabriel Landeskog has joined the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League on a minor league conditioning assignment. He could play with the Eagles on Friday or Saturday — maybe even both — in his comeback bid after nearly three years without playing an NHL game. A knee injury and subsequent surgeries have sidelined Landeskog since he helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Landeskog could be activated for Game 1 of Colorado’s first-round playoff series if the conditioning assignment and additional practices go well. The Avalanche will enter the postseason as no worse than the Central Division’s No. 3 seed.
“The more excited he gets about a return, the more excited I get," Bednar said. "Because I know there’s been lots of peaks and valleys.
“When you’re talking about mental toughness, resilience, the work ethic that it takes to go through what he’s gone through, and have all those ups and downs and peaks and valleys along his recovery to get to the point where it’s possible he could play, that’s pretty exciting.”
Landeskog's teammates feel the same way.
“Everybody wants him to be able to come back from this and succeed,” Makar said. “Everybody's rooting for him in here."
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Linesman Brandon Gawryletz (64) drops a puck for a face-off between Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) and Vegas Golden Knights center Brett Howden (21) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/Geneva Heffernan)
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) and center Brock Nelson (11) skate against Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) in overtime of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/Geneva Heffernan)
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) skates against Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb (3) in the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/Geneva Heffernan)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Six people who all knew each other were inside a vehicle when one, a man with an alleged gang connection, shot each of them in the head before fleeing, according to newly unsealed criminal charges in this week's mass shooting in Minneapolis.
Three victims died at the scene early Tuesday. Another succumbed to his wounds Thursday. One remains hospitalized after being shot in the face but was able to identify the shooter to police, according to the criminal complaint.
And investigators believe a fifth person was killed hours later in retaliation. A suspect in the first shooting was arrested Thursday and has been charged with murder.
Police say the victims were all Native Americans and the shooting was gang-related. The rash of violence has shaken one of the country’s largest urban Indigenous communities.
The first shooting happened on Tuesday just before midnight in a vehicle parked in the diverse residential and commercial neighborhood of Phillips in south Minneapolis. The county medical examiner's office on Friday said the three who died at the scene were Evan Ramon Denny, 27 of St. Paul; Joseph Douglas Goodwin, 17, of Minneapolis; and Merelle Joan White, 20, of Red Lake. Two had been shot multiple times.
A 20-year-old woman was shot in the face and hospitalized in critical condition, the complaint said. She said the shooter was sitting in the back seat when he opened fire on her and everyone else in the vehicle before fleeing on foot.
A 28-year-old man was hospitalized in grave condition but died shortly after the suspect was arrested on Thursday, police said. That victim's name was still being withheld Friday.
About 13 hours later and a few blocks away, a man was killed near an apartment building that happens to house the Minneapolis office of the Red Lake Nation, one of the state's largest tribes. The medical examiner identified him Friday as Tiago Antonio Gilbert, 34, of Minneapolis. He died of multiple gunshot wounds.
The Minneapolis police chief said Thursday it was “entirely probable” this second shooting was revenge for the first. But a police spokesman, Sgt. Garrett Parten, said investigators were still working to determine if there was a link.
Police have released few other details about that homicide.
A makeshift memorial had sprung up by Friday at the site of the first shooting. Red, silver and black balloons were tied to a tree where a plush eagle toy was also attached. At the base were candles, fresh flowers and a bottle of tequila.
The state’s 11 sovereign tribal nations issued a joint statement Thursday, mourning the deaths and urging anyone with information to contact city law enforcement or their own tribal police.
“As native peoples, we have always known grief,” the statement said. “But we have also always experienced the strength that comes afterward. We are here because our ancestors cared for one another. That is how you are even here — because someone before you chose love, protection, and community over despair.”
The complaint against James Duane Ortley, 34, of Minneapolis, alleges that he and members of his family are associated with a gang known as the Native Mob, which operates in the city’s south and other parts of Minnesota.
The gang was the subject of a multiyear federal investigation over a decade ago that resulted in the convictions of 28 people. Its alleged leader at the time was sentenced in 2014 to 43 years in prison.
The U.S. Marshals Service said its local fugitive task force and an FBI SWAT team arrested Ortley on Thursday afternoon. He was charged a day earlier with second-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Ortley has a felony assault conviction on his record from 2021, which the complaint said prohibits him from possessing guns or ammunition. Court records show he completed his probation in 2023. When police interviewed him in 2023 in a separate homicide investigation, the complaint said, he acknowledged that his street name was “Baby James.”
Ortley remained jailed Friday, and court records didn’t list an attorney who could comment on his behalf. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday. The chief public defender for Hennepin County, Michael Berger, said his office probably won’t learn if it’s representing Ortley until Monday. Messages were left with several potential relatives of Ortley's.
The victim who survived told police the shooter went by the street names “Baby J,” “Little J” and “Little James,” and was a friend of one of the victims, according to the complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court.
Relatives of one victim told police that the victims were all together at a family friend's residence in Minneapolis but left around 9:30 p.m. with plans to pick up “Baby J,” who was known to be a “close family friend” of the victims. The family member identified “Baby J” as the defendant.
Other law enforcement sources told investigators that Ortley was “an associate” of more than one victim, the complaint said.
A surveillance video was consistent with the survivor's account, the complaint said. It shows one person matching Ortley's description exiting the vehicle and fleeing before police arrived.
The complaint gave no details on what might have prompted the shootings.
“This is a bittersweet day,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement Friday. “While this arrest represents meaningful progress toward justice, that progress is overshadowed by the heartbreaking loss of another life. Our thoughts remain with the victims’ families, their loved ones, and a community that continues to grieve.”
This story had been updated to correct in the headline that he has been charged in four homicides, instead of charged with four homicides.
Associated Press reporters Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed.
Items are placed as a memorial at the site of a late Tuesday fatal shooting, on Friday, May 2, 2025 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
Items are placed as a memorial at the site of a late Tuesday fatal shooting, on Friday, May 2, 2025 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
A police officer works on the scene as a bystander is shook up by the homicide in front of 2107 Cedar Ave S in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)
Police work on the scene as a bystander is shook up by the homicide in front of 2107 Cedar Ave S in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)
