DENVER — This is true if Avalanche jet engine Nathan MacKinnon is seriously injured, or if he’s doing swell and there’s nothing to worry about.

Stop the fight.

The Avs can’t have MacKinnon fighting — not now, when they’re the first team to reach 100 points; or in the playoffs, as the prohibitive favorite to take home the Stanley Cup; or in seasons to come, since MacKinnon is only 26(!) and the roster won’t be as loaded as it is now.

Can’t have it. Can’t fight. Send another dude.

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Standby Thursday when Avs coach Jared Bednar likely will give his usual give-and-go with media to learn if MacKinnon, the perennial Hart Trophy candidate, will be back on the ice sooner or later after he got into a good ol’ fashioned hockey fight on Sunday vs. the Minnesota Wild.

You never know until you know with these hockey injuries. They are quadruple top-secret classified, as if the future of all humanity sits in the balance. Bednar foreshadowed bad news, saying they had a “high” concern level for MacKinnon’s upper-body injury, and MacKinnon returned to Denver before the rest of the team.

Stop. The. Fight.

This is the rare case where doing the right thing is the wrong thing. By sticking up for teammate Mikko Rantanen and boxing Wild defenseman Matt Dumba, MacKinnon did the wrong thing — even though it was the right thing, and his boys appreciated their best player throwing down.

“Shows how good of a teammate he is,” Rantanen said after.

But the Avs have one job this season. That’s it. Their one job is to win the Stanley Cup, and anything short of that is going to be viewed as a bummer — by general manager Joe Sakic, by the roster, by fans thirsty for over two decades. And by MacKinnon, who famously and perfectly said after last season: “I’m going into my ninth year next year and haven’t won (expletive).”

Good news is, MacKinnon reportedly was seen skating Wednesday at Family Sports Center, the team’s practice facility. Still. No more.

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The 2001 Avalanche lost Peter Forsberg to a ruptured spleen and still won the Stanley Cup, but that’s because the 2001 Avalanche had five All-Stars and Patrick Roy in goal. These Avs are the betting favorite for a reason, but they do not have five All-Stars and Patrick Roy in goal.

These Avs need a full-throttle MacKinnon to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2001.

Hockey’s different, I get it, but so are key players — in any sport. They must pick their spots. The beginning of the end of Terrell Davis’ legendary Broncos career occurred when the running back injured a knee while making a tackle after an interception. T.D. missed the rest of the 1999 season, and the dream of a three-peat was officially buried. Longtime Avs reporter Adrian Dater pointed out how the Avs would implore legend forward Peter Forsberg to not fight. They needed “Foppa” too much.

Kris Bryant, don’t charge the mound. Nikola Jokic, brush off the Morris twins. Shoot, one of Peyton Manning’s fanciest tricks came on sacks. P.F.M. crumpled to the ground rather than take a huge blow from Ray Lewis, Mario Williams or Jason Taylor. Looked funny, but it’s a pretty handy way to play 18 seasons in the NFL.

Truth is, I can’t recall a more competitive Colorado resident than MacKinnon. OK, maybe Becky Hammon. Or Kyle Freeland. Or the Quintana brothers at Holy Family High in the late 90s. But MacKinnon rides even his teammates like a potty-mouthed drill sergeant. He once bladed an 8-iron and threw his club — during a charity Hole-In-One event at Lake Tahoe. Another time on the golf course, according to MacKinnon on a Barstool Sports podcast, he laid into Avs assistant Dave Farrish.

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“I chunked one into the woods or the pond. Dave was talking in my backswing,” MacKinnon said. “So I just started screaming at our assistant coach: Don’t talk in my backswing, Dave!”

Good buddy Tyson Barrie was in the foursome: “Are you seriously yelling at our coach right now?”

Hey, I love that stuff as much as the next competitive son of a gun. Lord knows all the great ones had a streak that burned hot. But the fighting? Stop. Nate the Great means too much.