Nathan MacKinnon Named 2nd NHL Star of the Week

“All you can do is have a great effort and we’ve been doing that. I can’t remember our last bad game, to be honest. Probably Chicago, at home was our last bad game. We’ve been playing really well. I think we deserve more wins than we’ve gotten, and [we] got some puck luck tonight,” MacKinnon said after the 6-4 win against the Carolina Hurricanes. “Against Winnipeg, (Winnipeg G Connor) Hellebuyck was unreal, but we really played well in that game as well.”

Avalanche Star Duo Extend Season-Opening Point Streaks

MacKinnon leads the league with 29 points, one ahead of Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov. The 28-year-old has been the setup man with 22 assists for Mikko Rantanen and several other linemates as the team has rotated through injured players. He has 13 power-play points and three game-winning goals.

MacKinnon’s 22 assists are the most by any player through the first 15 games of a season since 2005-06 — Peter Forsberg (25 with the Philadelphia Flyers) and Jason Spezza (22 with the Ottawa Senators).

The Nova Scotia native notched five assists in the 6-3 win over the Seattle Kraken, which tied him with other Avalanche greats Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg and Quebec Nordique legends Anton Stastny, Marian Stastny, Michel Goulet, Owen Nolan and Mike Ricci.

Unfortunately, his season-opening point streak of 13 games ended in Winnipeg when the Jets blanked the Avs 1-0. He tied his franchise record from 2019-20 and became the second player with multiple 13-plus point season-opening streaks — behind Wayne Gretzky who accomplished it four times in his career.

MacKinnon won an NHL Star of the Week award only twice last season but got the Star of the Month three times and was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award for the first time in his career.