The Colorado Avalanche won their third Stanley Cup in team history in 2022, and arguably the biggest part of the Avs' competitive engine was superstar center Nathan MacKinnon.
In 2022, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history. And in this cover story from The Hockey News’ July 4, 2022, edition (Volume 75, Issue 16), editor-in-chief Ryan Kennedy profiled the engine of that Avs team – superstar center Nathan MacKinnon.
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MacKinnon had 13 goals and 24 points in 20 playoff games in 2022, But it was his maturity as a leader that stood out for many people, including Avs coach Jared Bednar.
“Going through what we went through in the playoffs (the previous) year has driven him to a different point this year,” Bednar said of MacKinnon. “He has a better understanding of everything happening around him, that other guys play an important role in our team’s success, it doesn’t have to always come back on him. And that doesn’t mean he doesn’t put a lot of weight on his own shoulders, (because) he does. That’s the type of competitor he is. But he’s willing to help in other ways and help the other guys around him be better players.”
MacKinnon followed up his Cup win with a Hart Trophy this past season as the NHL’s most valuable player. And his fellow Avalanche teammates understood he was the steam that stirs the drink in Colorado.
“He’s that driving force for us on a nightly basis,” Avs forward Gabriel Landeskog said of MacKinnon.
MOUNTAINTOP MACKINNON
Vol. 75, No. 16, July 4, 2022
By Ryan Kennedy
When the final buzzer sounded and the Colorado Avalanche officially won the 2022 Stanley Cup, Nathan MacKinnon tackled 6-foot-4, 225-pound defenseman Erik Johnson. It was the ultimate release for MacKinnon – a player whose competitive nature was well-known throughout the league. That goes double since, after being eliminated last season, he fumed that he had been in the NHL for eight years and his team hadn’t won anything.
But the fact he went all Ronnie Lott on Johnson, in particular, had significance: both had been with the Avs for the bottoming out of the franchise back in 2016-17, when Colorado submitted one of the worst records in the salary-cap era, winning just 22 games. That season was also Jared Bednar’s first behind an NHL bench.
MacKinnon, Johnson, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen are the only regulars left over from that squad (J.T. Compher spent a quarter of the season up with the Avs and the rest with AHL San Antonio), and climbing that mountain had significance. Hence, the massive tackle. “I cut my hand, but it felt good,” MacKinnon said. “With E.J., we’ve been together for 10 years, I met him when I was a kid, I was 17. We came from last place together, me, Landy, Mikko and him. It’s unbelievable now, and I’m forever grateful to go through it with those warriors.”
To watch this Avalanche team in the post-season was to see a force of nature in its element. Colorado overwhelmed opponents with skill, speed and power – characteristics that suit MacKinnon to the letter. Landeskog and Rantanen also brought it, as did ‘The Chu Chu Train’ Valeri Nichushkin. Proven warriors such as Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano, in search of their first Cup rings, also fit the bill. In Kadri and Cogliano, Colorado had the guys who’d been through the wars and had yet to be given their baubles. But this year, their teammates ensured that the vets got their due.
On top of that, you had Conn Smythe and Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar leading the team in scoring with his incredible movement, pace and puckhandling from the blueline. Understudy Bowen Byram provided a glimpse of what’s to come next season when opponents will have even more problems handling a Colorado defense corps boasting four puck-moving aces (Devon Toews and the injured Samuel Girard being the others).
But if you’re looking for the spiritual engine of the Avalanche, it’s MacKinnon. Way back when Joe Sakic, the original Colorado legend, was starting his career as the Avs’ head of player personnel (his official title at the time was executive VP of hockey operations, but he had final say on player-personnel decisions), Sakic had a conversation with fellow icon and then-coach Patrick Roy. Colorado had won the No. 1 pick in the 2013 draft, and several high-end options were on offer. MacKinnon was a powerful center, but so was Aleksander Barkov, the big Finn who had flirted with a point per game while playing against men in the Liiga. There was also big, toolsy defenseman Seth Jones – a friend of MacKinnon’s who had taken his Portland Winterhawks to the Memorial Cup, only to lose to the Halifax Mooseheads and, notably, a MacKinnon hat trick in the final.
So what should the Avs do? Roy put a question to Sakic: which player would lift fans out of their seats? The answer was MacKinnon. “Right from when he broke into the league, he could wow you and get you to jump out of your seat, for sure,” Sakic said. “He has so much explosive speed and he’s such a powerful guy. No one wants it more than him, real competitive. He was the one game-changer that could really entertain fans as well, and we are extremely fortunate to have Nathan on our team.”
Two years prior, the Avs had taken their future captain, Swedish two-way ace Gabriel Landeskog, with the second overall pick. Other young stars would move in and out (Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly, for example), but it would be MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen – taken at No. 10 in 2015 – who’d make up the core of the Colorado offense and represent the team identity.
Not that the road was easy.
The Avs were a doormat in 2016-17. In fact, with just 22 wins, they were the dirt under the doormat. “It’s been a long process, and we stuck together,” Landeskog said. “At the end of that first season, it was tough. We didn’t have much confidence as a group, and we were quite embarrassed, to be honest. Joe and ‘C-Mac’ (assistant GM Chris MacFarland) made changes to the lineup, we got younger and faster, ‘Bedsy’ had another year under his belt, and we started playing better as individuals and as a team.
“We’ve made the playoffs ever since, and now we’re here today. It came with some heartbreak along the way and a lot of growth. We believed in what we were doing and in one another.”
That first year after the ’16-17 disaster, the Avs were happy just to be in the post-season. From there, however, expectations began to climb. Colorado even got to within a game of the Western Conference final in the 2020 bubble before bowing out to the Dallas Stars. By the end of that series, the Avs had been destroyed by injuries, losing Johnson, Landeskog, Matt Calvert, Joonas Donskoi and being forced to use third-string goalie Michael Hutchinson.
Last season seemed like it would be Colorado’s time to reach the top of the mountain. This year’s core was already in place, and goalie Philipp Grubauer was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. But a second-round swoon against the Vegas Golden Knights saw the Avs crumble at the most inopportune of times, and, once again, the team fell short of its goal. “It’s obviously been tough,” MacKinnon said. “We’ve been to the playoffs five or six years in a row now, and the second round is hard. There’s only eight teams left in the league, and people kinda forget about that. With the new playoff format, you’re playing the second or third seed in the conference, and it’s difficult. We learned a lot, and as a group, we have our keys of why we’re here now.”
On the ice, MacKinnon’s contributions have been evident over the years. He started his NHL career with a splash, winning the Calder Trophy in 2013-14 after putting up 63 points in 82 games for an Avs team that made the playoffs after surprisingly winning the Central Division (this was right when analytics were coming into fashion, and the Avs were exposed in the first round as a team that had ridden great goaltending from Semyon Varlamov in the regular season).
MacKinnon’s numbers suffered as Colorado went into that trough a few years later, but as the team rose, his points followed. He had three straight seasons with at least 90 points from 2017-18 to 2019-20. With Landeskog and Rantanen fortifying the attack, the Avs had something potent going. Josh Manson, the 2022 trade-deadline acquisition who had long played against the Avs as an Anaheim Duck, had a lot of respect for the trio coming into Colorado. “They all drive the play and have high hockey IQ,” Manson said. “With ‘Mac,’ when he senses the opportunity, he knows how to use his speed and handle the puck.”
And that is perhaps the best thing about MacKinnon: he not only has the talent to make a difference, he has a burning desire to be the difference-maker. “He’s that driving force for us on a nightly basis,” Landeskog said. “He’s that guy pushing the pace for us, being that offensive threat every time he steps on the ice, and that opens it up for other guys. He just loves being that go-to guy, and that’s what makes him special. There are maybe two or three other guys in the league like that who have that ability to change the momentum of the game every time he gets the puck.”
Growing up in Cole Harbour, N.S., MacKinnon has long been linked to the phenom who came before him: Sidney Crosby. The two Cole Harbour boys have known each other for a long time. They train together in the summer and share an agent in Pat Brisson. It was because of Crosby that MacKinnon wanted to attend Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Minnesota before he went to the QMJHL, and the brotherly relationship is apparent when the two speak about each other.
But there’s another sports legend who greatly influenced MacKinnon’s life: Kobe Bryant, the basketball icon whose life was tragically cut short in a 2020 helicopter crash. When MacKinnon was at Shattuck-St. Mary’s, he used to play 1-on-1 basketball with future New York Islanders prospect Taylor Cammarata. MacKinnon would pretend to be Bryant, while the diminutive Cammarata would be undersized legend Allen Iverson. But it was more than just Bryant’s skills on the court that attracted MacKinnon. It was also the drive. Years ago, MacKinnon told me that he didn’t cheer for underdogs in the playoffs; he preferred to pull for superstars who had the weight of expectations on them and still came through. That was Bryant – a player who won five NBA titles and was the MVP of the final twice.
It was also interesting to note that during the playoffs this year both MacKinnon and Bednar used the phrase “the job’s not done” on more than one occasion. The phrase had a familiar echo for basketball fans: back in 2009, Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers had staked themselves to a 2-0 series lead in the final over the Orlando Magic. After the game, a reporter asked Bryant why he didn’t seem happy, to which Bryant replied, “What’s there to be happy about? The job’s not finished.”
In the end, Bryant’s Lakers did finish the job in five games, with Bryant earning MVP honors after leading Los Angeles in scoring in each of those games.
With the Avalanche up on Tampa Bay in the final, I asked MacKinnon about his admiration for Bryant and the idea that, now, the Avs were the team expected to carry the pressure of expectations as the team we expected to romp through the Western Conference (which they did) and potentially dethrone the Lightning.
“That’s our job,” he said. “Hockey is a little different, there’s no goalie in basketball, which helps. But it’s our goal to be the best we can in big moments. That’s the bigger picture, but we just kept looking at the next night.”
The fact Tampa Bay was Colorado’s opponent in the final just upped the ante, and MacKinnon was happy to face the best in his quest for that elusive ring. “There’s no Cinderella story,” he said. “It’s two of the best teams in the league going at it.”
Seeing the aforementioned bigger picture has been another vital step in MacKinnon’s maturation: the weight of expectations can still fall on his shoulders, but it is not his weight to bear alone. “Going through what we went through in the playoffs last year has driven him to a different point this year,” Bednar said. “He has a better understanding of everything happening around him, that other guys play an important role in our team’s success, it doesn’t have to always come back on him. And that doesn’t mean he doesn’t put a lot of weight on his own shoulders, (because) he does. That’s the type of competitor he is. But he’s willing to help in other ways and help the other guys around him be better players.”
Off the ice, MacKinnon has always been very personable, and he has been a role model for his younger teammates for a long time now, alongside captain Landeskog. “It’s been great,” Rantanen said. “Those guys and Erik Johnson have been around since my rookie year, and I’m really happy they took time to take me under their wing when I was 19, coming into my first season. They’re really good leaders, all three of them, and you can talk to them, and they’ll always help you.”
In Landeskog, you have a captain straight from central casting and someone who brings just as much on-ice intensity as MacKinnon. Landeskog also has a personality that demands responsibility and believes the pressure makes him better. “It’s like that quote, you do the right things no matter who is looking, whether someone’s watching or not,” said Johnson of Landeskog. “He hits, he fights, he scores, he’s vocal, he takes care of all the crap off the ice that nobody sees. So much goes into handling the team, and he does it all in stride. He’s a family man and a great guy. If you wanted a captain, you’d draw him right up.”
MacKinnon shared a similar sentiment, calling Landeskog the “perfect captain” and noting that, had Landeskog left the Avs via unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2021 (instead, he signed an eight-year, $56-million extension), it would have left a giant void in Colorado’s lineup.
As for Landeskog, he, too, has seen growth from MacKinnon. “He’s definitely grown up, we all have,” Landeskog said. “When you come in at a young age, you’re forced to grow up in this environment, and it’s not necessarily an easy thing to do. He’s gotten more comfortable in what he has to do away from the rink, becoming a pro, bringing it every day, and he’s been our best player for six years, maybe more.”
And when MacKinnon gets the puck, look out. Much like how former NFL running back (and new Seattle Kraken minority owner) Marshawn Lynch inspired Richter-scale readings with his fantastic rushes for the Seattle Seahawks, MacKinnon’s ability to change the course of a game or series was well-documented in Colorado’s title run this season. The best example, of course, was his stunning end-to-end-rush goal against St. Louis in the second round, the one that completed the hat trick for MacKinnon and temporarily halted a Blues comeback, albeit in a game the Blues ultimately won in overtime. It wasn’t the first time MacKinnon shook a building, and it won’t be the last. “You can even hear it,” Landeskog said. “When I was hurt (earlier in the season) and watching from up top in the arena, when he gets the puck, all 18,000 people start tensing up. That’s a special ability to have.”
There was also the apocryphal intensity that MacKinnon brought to the room. In an infamous interview translated from Russian, former Avs defenseman Nikita Zadorov claimed that MacKinnon had a cadre of doctors and dieticians on his personal payroll, banned desserts and soda from the Avs dressing room and terrorized teammates who didn’t give him perfect passes in practice. None of this was backed up by any other Avs, and MacKinnon later pointed out that he likes to get In-N-Out Burger after games – so he’s obviously not super-militant with his nutrition (he also called Zadorov a “bit of a donkey” for good measure).
So yes, MacKinnon has always been driven, but he’s not a cartoonish tyrant. And he has found the appropriate level of intensity with his teammates over the years. “He’s vocal,” Manson said. “He’s a leader, and he believes in the group we have here.”
What he also has is a motor to go with a frame that makes him like a fast tank on the ice. And if you look at how Colorado defeated the Lightning in the final, it was very much about getting on top of the Bolts as fast as possible and forcing the normally poised defending champs into making mistakes. That’s how the Avalanche won the first two games of the series, and while the Lightning made adjustments that tightened the series up in the middle, it was an outstanding defensive performance in the third period of Game 6 that allowed Colorado to clinch the Cup.
MacKinnon had points on both of the Avalanche goals in the game and also played his role as one of the key forwards bombing around the ice, making sure the Lightning could not get set up for their patented lethal offensive strikes. It was the perfect time for him to get rewarded on the scoresheet, especially since goals had been at a premium for the pivot earlier on in the series – after he scored in Game 4, a reporter asked him about getting out of his drought, to which MacKinnon earnestly replied, “What drought? I had a drought?”
Passion. Force. Execution. All those traits helped spur MacKinnon and the Avalanche to the promised land in the end. And they don’t get to that point without going through the adversity of previous campaigns. “That scar tissue builds up and gives you that character,” MacKinnon said. “Without those growing pains, we wouldn’t have won it this year.”
In retrospect, Sakic and the Avs could have blown things up a couple of times. When Bednar – in his first NHL head coaching gig – fell flat initially, the organization could have brought in a recycled coach behind the bench. When the team couldn’t get past the second round last year, big changes would not have been a shock. Even the biggest departure in the off-season, Grubauer going to Seattle, was a shocking move, as pretty much everyone expected the pending UFA to re-sign with the Avs. But the core was there. The answers were in the room, and another netminder, Darcy Kuemper, came in via trade with Arizona to fill the void in the crease left by Grubauer. “It’s a belief in your core,” Sakic said. “You have to learn, you have to grow. Over time, we kept getting a little bit better and our guys, especially this year, really competed and faced a lot of adversity and overcame it every single time. It’s a group that believes in each other, and we believe in them.”
That leads us back to MacKinnon and Johnson, in a pile on the ice of Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay after finally realizing their dream together. “The best part,” MacKinnon said, “is sharing it with your teammates, your brothers.”
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