Avalanche Room: MacKinnon on Sakic’s Trajectory? Drouin Talks Calm Bench

The Colorado Avalanche were down by four, but there’s never any panic on that bench.

After the comeback win on Sunday afternoon, I asked Jonathan Drouin if the bench was still calm, despite the deficit in the second period. I liked his answer a lot, and it just goes to show the difference between a veteran group and a young group that hasn’t been there before.

Nathan MacKinnon alleges he didn’t know he passed Joe Sakic in points after the game, but he did, and he talked about it after the game. I asked Jared Bednar if he thinks MacKinnon is on his way to being mentioned in the same breath as Sakic by the time his career is over.

Hear from both MacKinnon and Drouin after the game, and read what Bednar had to say after the comeback win from the Avalanche against the Penguins.

Jonathan Drouin

Drouin on the Avalanche bench down 4-0:

“It was calm. Maybe not as calm as before, but it was still calm. We knew we were right there. Those little plays they were making in the first, they were batting the puck out of the air, getting every bounce. We kind of stuck with it and got our chances.”

Nathan MacKinnon

Bednar on the ability for his Avalanche team to come back from deficits:

“I wish we wouldn’t put ourselves in some of those positions, like tonight. I think that’s on us, but they were resilient. They believed right until the end that we could come back and win that game. You can tell by the chatter in the locker room after one, after two, that they weren’t going to give up on it. Coaches kind of felt the same way if we tightened up our checking a little bit and closed the door on the defensive side of it, that we’d give ourselves an opportunity to come back. Would have been an easy game to go away quietly and say it wasn’t our night, but they didn’t allow that to happen. It shows really good mental toughness.”

Bednar on if he thought about pulling Georgiev:

“Our whole team kind of struggled in the first. I don’t know that we can blame him on any of those goals. They were getting saves at the other end. My belief is that if our whole team’s gonna battle to sort of come back in it, then Georgie’s got to be part of that. I don’t have that mentality all the time, but tonight, that was my thought process with it.”

Bednar on depth of Avalanche chipping in:

“You can’t win against really good teams consistently if you don’t have that depth. I’m looking at the teams out West and they all have depth.”

Bednar on Nathan MacKinnon passing Joe Sakic’s single season point record:

“I mean, this guy’s a phenomenal player, right? But that’s pretty good company. When you’re talking about our boss that’s had such a phenomenal career, then you watch what Nate’s doing, and it just speaks to who Nate is as a player.”

Bednar on Drouin and MacKinnon working on that one-timer in practice:

“Oh, a lot. Just come to one of our practices. They’re out early, they’re out late, they’re always working on those little touches and shots. It’s funny, we had trouble going through the seams too many times in the first period, and yet, we get two seam goals in the third.”

Bednar on Jonathan Drouin:

“No question, he was the best player on the ice. He was phenomenal tonight.”

Bednar on if MacKinnon is on a path to be looked at in a similar way to Joe Sakic in Avalanche history:

“No question. Both elite, and different players, different era. You got to respect what Joe did as a player. I mean, it’s hard to even put it into words. And then if you look at what Nate’s doing, and if he just continues to do it, there’s no question he’s going to be seen as one of those guys, if he’s not already.”