The new guys are pretty good. The reigning MVP is, too.
Nathan MacKinnon scored twice, including a brilliant power-play goal to complete a Colorado Avalanche comeback in a 7-4 victory Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs at a raucous Ball Arena.
His first goal, shortly after MacKinnon was knocked to the ice after a big hit, was point no. 998 of this career. It was also Colorado’s third straight goal after falling behind 4-2, and helped secure the club’s fifth straight victory.
Valeri Nichushkin sealed the win and completed a hat trick with an empty-net goal. He now has 15 goals in 26 games this season. It is his first regular-season hat trick. He had one during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“We let in a few more goals than we wanted, but I thought we actually played really well,” MacKinnon said. “That (Brock) Nelson, Val and (Jonathan Drouin) line was unreal. Really cool to watch them just dominate.”
MacKinnon added a second empty-netter to give him 100 points in a season for the third time and move him to within one from 1,000.
“He continues to impress me,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “When I first came here, he was battling to hit 100 points. He’s grown a lot as a player, as a leader, the consistency, the way he’s dangerous every time he touches the ice.”
This was the first game for Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle since being traded here Thursday night and Friday morning, respectively. The Avs also added old pal Erik Johnson just before the 1 p.m. Friday trade deadline.
The new-look lineup is formidable. Counting the two guys on long-term injured reserve (captain Gabe Landeskog and Tucker Poolman) and including the full cap hits for two players other clubs are retaining salary on (Nelson and Ryan Lindgren), the Avs now boast a $100 million roster.
Bednar had Nelson, Coyle and Jack Drury at center behind MacKinnon. Drury is the most tenured of that trio, having arrived six weeks ago in the deal that sent Mikko Rantanen to Carolina.
“Yeah, 100 percent it is going to change,” Bednar said when asked about the team’s identity with all the new faces. “It should change. We’re built different. We are big, strong and long in the middle of the ice.
“We’re still a fast team, but we’ve added some size and that’s hard to play against.”
Drouin got the Avs level with 8:05 remaining in the third. Coyle sent him a pass from behind the net as he skated towards the slot and Drouin snapped home a one-timer for his ninth goal of the season. That’s three goals in four games for Drouin.
The Avalanche scored twice in Nelson’s first three shifts. Valeri Nichushkin collected both of them.
Nichushkin tipped a point shot from Lindgren just 56 seconds in. That was Lindgren’s first point with the club since he arrived this past Saturday in a trade from the New York Rangers.
Nelson picked up his first point in a Colorado uniform at 6:06 of the first. Nichushkin chased down the rebound of a Sam Malinski shot that went wide, and then worked a give-and-go with his new center.
The Avs are now 19-7 when Nichushkin is the lineup and 19-17-2 when he is not.
“Val with the hat trick is amazing,” MacKinnon said. “He’s been so good since he’s been back. I don’t think we’ve lost. He definitely deserved that big night.”
While the Avs new-look second line scored twice in the first period, Toronto also struck twice against them. Marner scored his first at 3:04 from inside the right circle, then Tavares snapped one past Mackenzie Blackwood at 12:51 after a Jonathan Drouin turnover and a collision between Josh Manson and William Nylander left Tavares with all kinds of space.
Marner scored again, on a one-timer from Auston Matthews late in the first. The Maple Leafs had three goals on just eight shots in the opening period.
Then Tavares made it a 4-2 advantage with a power-play goal at 12:45 of the second after another feed from Matthews.
Joel Kiviranta scored for the second time in as many games to get Colorado back within one late in the second. Sam Malinski earned his second assist of the night with a great play to create a goal from a harmless looking situation.
Malinski corralled the puck in this own zone and saw both teams were in the middle of a line change. He rushed up the ice along the right boards, and instead of dumping the puck into the offensive zone, he kept going and found Ross Colton with a slick pass. Colton slipped it to Kiviranta cutting to the net, and the latter had his 13th goal of the season at 15:11.
“We need four lines. We didn’t have any passengers tonight,” Bednar said. “That was a really strong performance.”
