One of the biggest accomplishments of the NHL season so far?
Largely thanks to Nathan MacKinnon, the Colorado Avalanche, the still-young and speedy fashionable choice as a Stanley Cup threat, has managed to recover and ultimately stay afloat after losing two-thirds of its electric top line to injuries for extended periods.
Finnish winger Mikko Rantanen missed 16 games with a lower-body injury before returning to the lineup against Chicago Saturday, getting a goal and three assists in the 7-3 romp that gave the Avalanche a sweep of a barn-to-barn set with the Blackhawks.
Swedish winger Gabe Landeskog, the Avalanche captain, is on the verge of getting back in the lineup after missing 15 games with … you guessed it, a lower body injury.
(There must be vaccination for that, wouldn’t you think?)
That’s left MacKinnon, the top line’s center, playing with a rotating cast of wingers — and thriving. He had a goal and two assists against the Blackhawks Saturday and as of Monday morning, his 42 points – on 17 goals and 25 assists – left him tied for fourth in league scoring with David Pastrnak of the Bruins. They were behind only Connor McDavid (51) and Leon Draisaitl (50) of Edmonton, and Brad Marchand (43) of Boston.
The Avalanche wasn’t immune to struggle initially after losing Rantanen and Landeskog. Colorado, now 16-8-2, lost five straight at one point, the last four with both wingers out of the lineup. But ultimately in the 14 games Colorado was without both Rantanen and Landeskog, MacKinnon had 10 goals and 14 assists and the Avalanche went a decent 7-6-1 to stay in the hunt.
The NHL noticed.
On Sunday, the league named McDavid (No. 1), MacKinnon (No. 2) and the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane (No. 3) as its three stars for November.
It’s one more step in showing that MacKinnon has made the transition from underachieving after his rookie season to retroactively becoming a “generational” No. 1 overall pick — instead of the guy at the top of the board in a year minus that kind of player.
That was the tricky part. He never was billed as the Sidney Crosby-, or McDavid-, or Auston Matthews-type generational player.
He became one.
He has become close friends and trains with Crosby, and the two also are familiar as the co-stars of Tim Hortons commercials. They both were raised in the Halifax, Nova Scotia, Regional Municipality — MacKinnon in Dartmouth’s Bel Ayr Park neighborhood, Crosby in nearby Cole Harbour — and both played in the Cole Harbour Bel Ayr Minor Hockey Association programs. MacKinnon is eight years younger than Crosby, and as the Avalanche’s star center has progressed, the two annual Pittsburgh-Colorado games have evolved from curiosities early in MacKinnon’s career to rightfully hyped meetings of two of the league’s top players.
MacKinnon was that No. 1 overall choice in 2013, won the Calder Trophy in the Avalanche’s magical 112-point season under Patrick Roy, but then largely was unimpressive from there before finally breaking out in 2017-18. He was the catalyst in that Avalanche turnaround season and was a Hart Trophy finalist, and you could even make a case that he was even better last season. Now, it’s not just about numbers. He truly has been among the league’s most valuable players this season — and, under the circumstances, may even be at the top of the list.
After the Saturday win over the Blackhawks, I asked Avalanche coach Jared Bednar to what extent this latest MacKinnon run has highlighted his center’s continued maturation.
“I would say significant,” Bednar said. “Not unlike we saw at the end of last year, though. We were without Mikko and Landy down part of the stretch. For lack of a better term, he could have put our team on his back and he was our leader on and off the ice and found a way to contribute and make his teammates better every night and he’s doing the same thing right now.”
MacKinnon is in his seventh NHL season, yet still is only 24. At one point, I suspect he was tired of me asking and writing about that “generational” issue, about him needing to have more in common with McDavid than their draft slot. To his credit, he understood the comparison.
“If anything, I’m just trying to be more of a (leadership) presence when Gabe’s out,” MacKinnon told me. “He’s such a good vocal leader. I’m trying to do a little more of that to fill that void in the room. We’re really quiet. I mean, we have five, six callups (from the AHL Colorado Eagles) now and obviously we don’t expect them to talk. It’s up to other guys. I’ve been around for seven years now and it’s up to me to try to be a good, positive leader like Gabe is, and when he’s back, it just makes everybody’s life easier.”
MacKinnon clearly is more comfortable wearing an “A” than a “C.”
“I just try to do my job and be a leader, help out when guys get hurt,” he said. “We got Mikko back tonight, which is awesome. He was unbelievable, as he usually is. It makes it easy when he’s out there. Things just happen. Sometimes I just watch him with the puck and he’s amazing. He’s one of the best players in the world and he’s young still, and getting so much better.”
Landeskog might be back as soon as on the upcoming trip to Toronto, Montreal and Boston.
“Gabe’s the heartbeat of our team, our leader and a really good player on top of it,” MacKinnon told me. “We started the season 7-0 and we weren’t even playing our best hockey. When we get healthy, we’re a very confident bunch.
“We have really good leadership here and obviously, it starts with (Bednar) and it comes down to us. . . I also think that since both I and Nazim (Kadri) didn’t get hurt, so we had both our (top) centermen out there, and that’s really key.”
MacKinnon actually is nearly seven months younger than the Denver Nuggets’ similarly elite center, Nikola Jokic, who had a breakout 2018-19.
A hunch bet?
As of last week, a winning $10 bet on a two-team Denver parlay – the Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup and the Nuggets to win the NBA title – would return nearly $2,400.
About Terry: Terry Frei is the author of seven books. His novels are Olympic Affair and The Witch’s Season, and among his five non-fiction works are Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming, Third Down and a War to Go, and ’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age. Information is available on his web site, terryfrei.com. His woodypaige.com archive can be found here.
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