Terry Frei
The scene was memorable — so memorable that Nathan MacKinnon has been asked about it approximately a million times since.
Last year, after the Vegas Golden Knights knocked off the Avalanche in the second round of the playoffs, a dour MacKinnon sat at the microphone and declared: “I’m going into my ninth year next year and haven’t won sh*t.”
He’s making progress.
On Friday night, at the same juncture of the playoffs, MacKinnon was back at the table and microphone, sitting next to Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog.
This time, he was getting to talk about moving on to face Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference finals, beginning Tuesday at Ball Arena.
With the 3-2 win over the Blues in Game 6 Friday night, the Avalanche cleared the second-round hurdle after three straight losses in what the NHL prefers to call the Western Conference semifinals.
They — including coach Jared Bednar — shook off the second-round albatross.
Or however you want to put it.
For the first time in McKinnon and Landeskog’s stays with the Avalanche, they are in the Final 4.
The panic so prevalent among the Avs’ constituency earlier in the week, including members of the media, was familiar overreaction to single games.
Consider the franchise’s last game in the conference finals was in 2002 — the ignominious 7-0 loss to the Red Wings in Game 7 in Detroit. We didn’t know it at the time, but that pretty much marked an end to the Avalanche’s glory years.
“It means a lot,” MacKinnon said of finally advancing beyond the second round. “I think you really have to enjoy the journey. That’s the most important thing. What we’re going to look back on is the journey of getting to this point. I guess there’s five, but there will be only four teams soon, and obviously, the job’s not finished. But it’s a great accomplishment for us. We’ve been in some dark times, so it’s nice to get over this hump.”
MacKinnon’s hat trick and spectacular third goal in the Avalanche’s 5-4 overtime Game 5 loss to the Blues can’t be waved off because of the blown 3-0 lead. MacKinnon declined to even crack a smile about his personal big night because of the loss, but he’ll be showing the video of the third goal to his kids someday.
He has 8 goals and 5 assists in the Avs’ 10 playoff games, and one of the surprising aspects of the series-ending Game 6 win over the Blues was that neither MacKinnon nor any of the other Avs’ stars hit the scoresheet.
As it turned out, with two goals from J.T. Compher and the game-winner from Darren Helm with 5.6 seconds left in regulation, they didn’t need to.
Next up: The Oilers in what promises to be a highly entertaining showcase for the NHL, with the first-ever playoff matchup between McDavid — the best player in the league — and MacKinnon, who also is on the marquee. It also gives one of the league’s new U.S. television partners, TNT, a potentially intriguing storyline to promote.
MacKinnon vs. McDavid.
“There are a lot of challenges,” MacKinnon said. “They have two of the most dangerous players in the league right now. Maybe three with [Evander] Kane. It’s a really deep team. Their structure I think is underrated. Playing Edmonton all year, they have a really tight structure with Jay [Woodcroft] there.
“It’s a tough team to play against. They don’t give you much. They’re committed to both sides of the puck, despite the narrative around that team. It’s probably changing now, but it’s a really tough team to play against. It’s going to be a full team effort to shut those guys down, obviously, gotta stay out of the box as well. But we’re confident. We feel like if we play our best we can get it done against anybody. Obviously it’s going to be a very tough series, but we’re confident. Enjoy it tonight and reset tomorrow.”
I keep thinking back to earlier in MacKinnon’s career, when he clearly wasn’t considered a “generational” talent.
Yes, he had gone at the No. 1 overall spot in the 2013 NHL draft, but that label was considered more fitting for McDavid and Auston Matthews, the top picks in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
As the Avalanche were finishing up the historically dreadful 48-point season 2016-17, and MacKinnon was destined to finish with only 16 goals, I asked him about those repeated comparisons.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself and I always have,” MacKinnon said then. “I always felt like I was under the spotlight as a kid, and growing up in the same hometown (Halifax) as Sid (Crosby), there was always, ‘The next Sidney,’ which is tough. . . Being the No. 1 overall pick, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that and I definitely have to be better, that’s for sure.”
He acknowledged of McDavid and Matthews: “They’re No. 1 overall picks and they’re having lots of success. Hopefully, I will …”
MacKinnon paused there to correct himself.
“No, I will be better than this,” he said. “But, yeah, those guys are great players, and hopefully I can be at their level soon.”
A few months later, in November 2017, he told me: “There’s only one me, good or bad. I’m not anybody else. I work really hard and I do a lot of things to get better. I’m improving and I felt like I really improved over the summer and I feel good. My mindset’s getting stronger as well. I’m still pretty young and I feel I have lots of growing to do.
“Obviously, those guys (McDavid and Matthews) are pretty special players. I don’t know if I’m going to be a Connor McDavid one day, but I’m going to be the best version of myself and I hope that can help turn this team into a championship team.”
He’s eight more playoff wins away from doing that.
Both the Avs and Oilers have other stars, of course — including Draisaitl and Cale Makar, who was uncharacteristically quiet against the Blues. This will even have the side drama of having Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson playing against his father, Dave, an Oilers assistant coach. The Avs will be seeking their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals in 21 years.
The pressure’s not off. This team still has Cup-or-bust expectations. But at least MacKinnon and his teammates won’t have to any longer hear themselves dismissed as second-round failures.
Terry Frei ([email protected], @tfrei) is a Denver-based author and journalist. He has been named a state’s sportswriter of the year seven times in peer voting — four times in Colorado and three times in Oregon. His seven books include the novels “Olympic Affair” and “The Witch’s Season.” Among his five non-fiction works are “Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming,” “Third Down and a War to Go,” “March 1939: Before the Madness,” and “’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age.” He also collaborated with Adrian Dater on “Save By Roy,” was a long-time vice president of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and has covered the hockey Rockies, Avalanche and the NHL at-large. His website is www.terryfrei.com and his bio is available at www.terryfrei.com/bio.html
His Colorado Hockey Now column archive can be accessed here