Nathan MacKinnon is an . Sit with him? Dude, you can’t even skate with him.
“He wants to win, whether it’s Oct. 7th or June 21st,” Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood told me after practice earlier this week. “It’s just in his blood. He wants to produce. He wants to compete.”
“So he’s not on some giant Nate revenge tour because of the Milan Cortina Olympics?” I wondered. “I mean, not even a little?”
“I could see where you can maybe come to that conclusion,” Wedgie continued. “But I don’t think he wakes up in the morning and is like, ‘I didn’t win (Olympic) gold, so I’ve got to win the Stanley Cup.’ Because he’s like, ‘I’m going to win the Cup,’ no matter what.
“I think the best thing that you can probably say about Nate is (he) doesn’t give a (expletive) about it. You could (have it) either way — you win the gold, but you don’t win the Cup, he’s (expletive) off. You win the Cup and you get silver, he’s obviously happy — but he’s probably still a little bit (expletive) off that he didn’t win the gold.”
And let’s face it: Nate Dogg is more fun as a serial killer.
Now don’t get me wrong — 29 is great theater all the time, must-see TV, an artiste on twin blades. But Playoff Nate is another gear of bonkers, a hero sandwich of magic and menace.
It’s a sight to behold, so long as you’re watching from a safe distance. He’s Popeye after the spinach, the Hulk after he’s angry.
Although to hear Wedgewood tell it, like , MacKinnon’s always angry. The Dogg’s scored a goal in six straight Cup games. In nine playoff appearances this spring, he’s already piled up seven goals and 13 points.
Whatever Nate wants, Nate takes. The Avs got to the Stanley Cup’s Western Conference Finals, which start Wednesday against John Tortorella’s Vegas Golden Knights, in just nine games. Which is even quicker than the 10 tilts, combined, it took to eliminate Nashville and St. Louis in 2022.
MacKinnon’s volcanic, game-tying goal of Game 5 of the Minnesota series
Come on, right? Talk about fate, Nate.
“I saw a little daylight and just threw it there,” MacKinnon said of his snipe. “It doesn’t always go where you want it to.”
MacKinnon plays with such pace and edge and rage all the time, that it can be hard to tell where the genius ends and the ax murderer begins. But you can’t convince us that Nate’s Olympic heartbreak with Team Canada wasn’t one of the best things to happen to the Avalanche this postseason. Or that the man still doesn’t have nightmares
Remember Tina? No? She was one of the two mascots for this past Winter Olympics. Someone handed a stuffed Tina and a silver medal to MacKinnon three months ago in Italy within minutes of one of the worst losses in his life.
You could probably find both in a dumpster a short while later. Or burned to a crisp. Or floating in the Adriatic Sea. Or, more likely, some combination of all three.
“It obviously would’ve been awesome for all of them on the Canadian side to win it, for sure,” Wedgewood continued. “Yeah, you could definitely probably put (that anger) in there. But I don’t think he wakes up and says, ‘I’ve got to prove the haters wrong from Team Canada’s situation.’ ‘I want to win with my teammates’ is more valuable (to him).”
Mack The Knife was justifiably furious after falling short of winning gold, and took heat
You want to shut any critics up back home this summer? Pull up to the old neighborhood in your truck with Lord Stanley riding shotgun.
“I think, for those guys, their level of motivation is at an all-time high at all times,” Logan O’Connor told me. “I don’t think it motivated (MacKinnon and Cale Makar) any more than normal to go on this challenge we’re going on.
“I think it’s more so — probably, obviously — that (they) came back (expletive) off not getting the result they wanted. But I think their motivation level’s always on ‘excellence’ between the both of them.”
Yeah, dude.
But that poor, poor, stuffed stoat.
“I laughed at it. I watched it, too,” Wedgewood chuckled. “But it was just, (he’d told us), ‘You’ve got to stand there for 20 minutes … (We’re) like, why are we still standing out here and waiting for you to hand me a stuffed animal after I lost?’ I understand the frustration. But that’s who he is. He cares. And he shows it.”
By all means, Torts. Go on. Please. Make him angry.
