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A Month Later, MacKinnon Still Unhappy With How Avalanche Season Ended
One of the things that sets Nathan MacKinnon apart from a lot of other athletes is his competitive drive. He wants to win, and he will do everything it takes to get there. If you want to win, you can’t accept losing. One month after the Colorado Avalanche were eliminated from the postseason by the Dallas Stars, MacKinnon is still upset with how everything finished.
The 28 year old superstar, who will likely win the Hart Trophy next week, made the rounds on the radio Tuesday, in part to promote Cwench Hydration, created by his long-time trainer Andy O’Brien. While on TSN1050, MacKinnon was asked about his infamous post-game press conference after the Avalanche lost to the Vegas Golden Knights back in 2021. You may remember this quote…
If you don’t happen to remember, the Avalanche star said, “I’m going into my ninth year next year and I haven’t won shit,” when asked about the future of the organization. He’s not someone who thinks about the future. He knows when a team has a chance to win the Stanley Cup, they need to take advantage of it.
That’s something he feels like this year’s Avalanche team let slip through their fingers.
“It feels like 10 years ago we actually did win now. I might say that quote again soon,” MacKinnon said. “I just think when you feel like you have teams to win and you don’t, it just feels like a waste of a season. It feels like that again this year for us. I felt like we were good enough to win, and we didn’t. It just leaves a really bitter taste in your mouth.”
MacKinnon is one to take ownership of his play, and on the Jeff Marek Show, took some of the blame.
“I really want to improve my game and come back better and produce more,” he told Marek. “I didn’t produce the way I needed to in that series. Just wasn’t good enough. Just couldn’t get the puck in the net, that was a tough team, good goalie, but yeah, got to be better.”
Dallas did slow down Colorado’s big guns, which is a big reason why they were able to win the series in six games. MacKinnon was “held” to five points in six games, and was held without a point in three of the six games. He discussed what changes he’s going to make this summer to come back even stronger next season.
“I just think there’s always things I can do to get better,” MacKinnon said. “This summer, I’m planning on skating a little bit more, just trying to fine tune my game. I don’t have a specific area I guess, but I just think the next year of work before the playoffs, or 10 months, of just fine-tuning my game, working every day, can add up. Hopefully that just creates a better outcome and better results for the team.”
I guess we’ll see if MacKinnon walks away with the Hart Trophy next week, but I’m pretty confident he will. I’ll be there live in Las Vegas at the NHL Awards Show with all the coverage.
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Nate is the most honest player in the league.
Glad he’s with the Avs & look forward to next year.
Thanks for all your coverage this summer Evan
Gonna be an interesting off season for the Avs. MacKinnon should hire a faceoff win wizard and practice winning faceoffs all summer. Avs losing valuable pp time when Mac constantly loses draws at the start of the pp.
Yeah it’s splitting hairs trying to evaluate what Mack needs to do to get “better”. But yeah him becoming an above 50% faceoff guy would be nice.
Also wouldn’t mind seeing him maybe fine tune his defensive game a bit. He has a tendency to lack attention to detail in his own zone. And seeing as how he usually plays with Mikko the king of lackadaisical, that isn’t always ideal. Minor quibbles in the grand scheme though.
Lastly lol..maybe curb the temper tantrums a bit. You like to see the emotion, but it’s often counterproductive.
Heh, this was going to be my comment as well. Faceoffs have been his one glaring weakness his entire career. He needs to get together with Crosby and just spend a solid month learning how to win draws.
Fingers crossed for Nate. He deserves it.
Watching the game 5 pregame show and just saw the tour of the Panthers new practice facility. It got me thinking how embarrassing it is that the Avs have to practice at Family Sports Center. WTF? Why don’t the Avs have a top notch practice facility/complex. When the little things can mean the difference, this is a huge disadvantage for the Avalanche; and all other things being equal, it could be something that would cause a free agent to say No to Colorado. Are there any plans for anything better?
Daniel, here you go: Denver Nuggets, Avalanche could soon have new shared practice facility (sportsbusinessjournal.com)
I really hope he does have a training plan and it’s heavy on face-offs. He needs to become one of the best in the league on that rather than where he’s been in the low-40%s.
Really hard to critique a guy who has been a point per game player or better in every playoff season of his career, but hey sure why not! Faceoffs, yep that’s an easy one. Oh, and more forecheck/backcheck never hurt anyone. Call me crazy – I’d like to see Mack fine tune his stick handling in order to become an overall better puck handler. -Too many imperfect passes to teammates because he stick handled 10 times in 0.5 seconds before hand. -Too many failed pass receptions on perfectly fine passes from teammates, I assume because he’s already thinking ahead to… Read more »
“You may remember this quote…”
Yes, but not that one 🙂
Mack did “everything he could to win” in the Stars series other than forecheck & backcheck with any intensity. Just minor details like that, right? Same for “Just a Walk in the Park” Rantanen.
Exactly. I posted something similar but it was censured and not posted. Thanks Evan, nice to know you are superior to us idiots posting fact about a player unjaundiced. Fact is, MacKinnon was a turnover machine all season and playoffs either 5-5 or PP. He sits and rests on PP. I don’t think the team needs a lazy PKer. MacKinnon consumes 1/7 of the team cap and left them paralyzed. He has no further to stand in front of a mirror to see the $12.6M player who vanished. He had plenty of chances to check opposition players yet turned away like the pansy he… Read more »
What’s he supposed to do after a season ending-back breaking-double overtime goal? Based on the level of anger in your post, I would guess you think he should go kick some puppies after the goal instead??
As others have said, face-offs of course, but how do you practice those? What if the other guy sucks at them? Defensive play? That’s not something to practice, that’s commitment mentally and watching video. The thing he can work on, which clearly separates McDavid from MacKinnon in my opinion, is that McDavid is extremely superb with his stick handling in tight or through opposing players at high speed or during small bursts. Watch the set-up McDavid did to Corey Funking Perry last night as evidence. Mac routinely gets that step on defenseman but although he has good to elite puck-handling,… Read more »
Unfortunately for Colorado, Mac is the only player on the Avs team who has this intensity and drive to win. Being stabbed in the back for the second year in a row by Nichushkin didn’t help. I hate for any NHL team to go through the NHL Player Assistance Program protocol. Two strikes is enough to void your contract and say Sayonara. I hope when the next NHL contract is negotiated that the owners realize what a mistake this is. Yes, provide all the support and “off ice” treatment you can. But void that contract after the 2nd offense. The… Read more »
💯 the long ass contracts need to stop also. The 6,7, 8 year crap is nonsense. 3-4 years tops per contract is more than enough term.
Exactly. I posted something similar but it was censured and not posted, Thanks Evan, nice to know you are superior to us idiots posting fact about a player unjaundiced. Fact is, MacKinnon was a turnover machine all season and playoffs either 5-5 or PP. He sits and rests on PP. I don’t think the team needs a lazy PKer. MacKinnon consumes 1/7 of the team cap and left them paralyzed. He has no further to stand in front of a mirror to see the $12.6M player who vanished. He had plenty of chances to check opposition players yet turned away like the pansy he… Read more »
I deleted it because it’s the same thing you’ve posted for a month now, but I’ll let it through so that everyone else can have fun with it.