Avalanche Locker Room: Rantanen Talks 40th Goal, Complete Victory

Nathan MacKinnon is on fire, but there’s a strong case to be made for Mikko Rantanen being the MVP of the Colorado Avalanche.

The Finnish forward hit the 40 goal mark for the first time in his career, and was the fastest player in franchise history to do so. Not bad.

Rantanen spoke for a long time about what, if anything, the milestone means to him. He also talked about how the team is currently playing, and the big win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

In addition, read what Head Coach Jared Bednar had to say after the win.

Bednar on the 3-0 Victory:

I thought we were committed again, on both sides of the puck. I liked the game a lot. I think part of it though, suppressing scoring chances and shots like that is that we managed the puck a lot better tonight than we have in the past. Even in some of our good games. I just thought we were cleaner with the puck. Part of that is decision making, part of that is the players without the puck working for support, and getting into the right areas of the ice quickly.

Bednar on Nichushkin’s play

I like his work ethic, the way he plays. It’s a 200 foot commitment all the time. He’s hard on pucks on the offensive side of things, checking things back, and same thing on our half of the ice. I feel like he’s a little bit snakebitten and not getting as many chances as he had before. It looks like he’s beating up the puck on certain nights, but his commitment and work ethic is always there.

Bednar on this current stretch of hockey

I think we’re currently in the best stretch of hockey we’ve played this year. It’s also the best lineup that we’ve had all year long.

Bednar on Jack Johnson’s first game back

I thought he was great. Noticeable difference right away. Just skating, moving the puck. I thought the ‘D’ core did a nice job. It had a good flow to it and it’s nice to get back to 12 and six with another experienced guy like Jack.

Bednar on Rantanen scoring his 40th

It means a lot. It just feeds into everything we just talked about it. And to do it at the clip he’s done it. If I saw it correctly, it said he was the fastest Av to do it, just edging out Joe (Sakic). So, I mean, it’s pretty good company to be keeping.