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Roy calls Backes ‘gutless’ for altercation with MacKinnon

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James OBrien

The Colorado Avalanche handled the St. Louis Blues to the tune of a 4-0 win on Saturday, but the ugly scene at the end of the game might fuel the two teams’ fire more than the score if there’s a rematch in the playoffs.

During one moment, David Backes and Nathan MacKinnon got into it, as you can see via this video:

Never known to back down from a confrontation, Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy called Backes “gutless” for the altercation with the Avs rookie.

While Backes took the high road after the game, Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock provided some interesting comments about his rival bench boss.

Hitchcock didn’t send Ryan Reaves out there, but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t fallout from the MacKinnon - Backes scuffle and Patrick Bordeleau’s hit on Kevin Shattenkirk, as you can see in this video:

Just take a look at the box score to get an idea of how much of a mess this situation was.

The good news for the Avalanche is that MacKinnon was able to return to action later on, so at least it doesn’t appear that an injury resulted from that skirmish (unless it appears that way after further inspection).

The Blues lose a player to injury, however, as Alex Steen won’t play on Sunday because of an upper-body injury. It’s unclear how serious that issue might be.

So, overall, the game ended in a frenzy and these two teams clearly aren’t best friends. At least we’ll have a few extra things to talk about if Colorado and St. Louis end up facing off in a second-round Central Division playoff matchup though, right?

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins