Even in Low Power mode, Nathan MacKinnon never lost the signal.
“I was OK,” the Avalanche center said through tired eyes after scoring twice against Vancouver late Tuesday night. “Yeah, it’s been a grind. Montreal (last Saturday) was Hell. (Tuesday) was a little better. Just tired. Just tired.”
Even while battling an undisclosed malady, MacKinnon’s flying under the radar at about Mach 3 right now. As the Front Range obsesses over a 10-2 Broncos team and the Nuggets’ sudden indifference to defense, Nasty Nate is quietly painting his professional masterpiece across Ball Arena’s frozen canvas.
MacKinnon’s 46 points over his first 26 games are a career best so far. He’s on a pace to put up 145 points, which would obliterate his own Avs single-season record of 140, set in the spring of 2024. No Colorado player — not Joe Sakic, not Peter Forsberg — has ever put up 46 points through the season’s first 26 games before. Only one Nordique ever opened a regular season hotter than this fall’s MacK Attack — Peter Stastny collected 48 points through his first 26 appearances of the ’87-88 season.
“I don’t know. He’s OK,” captain Gabriel Landeskog, who’s also been under the weather, quipped after the Avs’ 3-1 victory with tongue planted firmly inside his cheek.
“No, (MacKinnon) has been — I mean, he’s super dynamic. (He’s) creating in a lot of different ways off the rush, in (the) zone, off the cycle … he commands the attention on that power play and is able to kind of dictate what we end up doing. So, (he’s) just very poised, looks calm out there, in control, and obviously, he’s got the same tremendous speed he’s always had … he’s shooting the puck well. So a lot of things are going well for him.”
Over his last four games, MacKinnon’s scored five times, collected nine points and posted a combined plus-9 in the plus/minus column. Consider this: Tuesday was his seventh multi-goal game of a relatively young season. And that total is already just one fewer (eight) than MacKinnon’s multi-goal nights over the entirety of 2024-25.
Oh, and did we mention he’s been sick for most of that stretch? We did? Cripes, MacKinnon looks better with two bars on his 5G meter these days than most of his NHL peers do with four or five. Despite feeling like hot garbage, the Avs star kept his head on a swivel while keeping the Canucks on their collective heels.
“So obviously, Nate was one of the guys (in the locker room) that was sick,” said Colorado coach Jared Bednar, whose 19-1-6 squad opens a four-game road swing at the Islanders on Thursday. “I don’t think he was at his best (against Vancouver) on the checking side of it, because that takes a lot of energy and a lot of hard work.
“But here’s the thing: You don’t have to make every play. But you have to make some big plays. So that’s what Nate can do. Even when he’s not at his best, he still obviously has the ability — and he stays focused enough on doing the right things to make a play or two that can be difference-making plays for you. And that’s what he did (Tuesday).”
The Avs started sluggishly against the Canucks until MacKinnon gave the hosts a swift kick up the caboose. The Colorado vet wristed a rebound past goaltender Kevin Lankinen from the left face-off circle with 32 seconds left in the first period — a score that got the Avs off their collective duffs and onto the scoreboard.
MacK The Knife’s second goal, though, was the one that proved to be the dagger. As Colorado led 2-1 with 35 seconds remaining in the second stanza, MacKinnon chased down a loose puck in Vancouver’s zone and gently tipped it in the direction of Landeskog, who suddenly zipped past Nasty Nate’s right shoulder.
When happened next was like 2018 never left. While Landy curled into the face-off circle, two Vancouver defenders trailed him the way a tail follows a comet. During a mad scramble, the Canucks somehow decided to leave NHL’s points leader free to drift all alone until he’d settled on a firing position in the slot.
Landeskog didn’t mess around, and MacKinnon didn’t miss, launching a lasered one-timer into the twine for the Avs’ third and decisive goal of the contest.
“I mean, (the game) was all right,” the Colorado center reflected later. “We’re not gonna score first every night. Yeah, it definitely wasn’t our best. It was just kind of a boring game, a lot of whistles, a lot of icings … it was just one of those nights. Just a muck.”
Even a bug couldn’t spoil Nate’s Mucky Day. The masterpiece marches east, lamps lighting the way. For a sick puppy, the dawg in MacKinnon would sooner play dead than ever phone it in.