After starting the season on fire with 19 points in his first 17 games, Colorado Avalanche forward, Nathan MacKinnon, has registered 9 points in his last 16 games.
He also hasn’t scored a goal since November 25th against the Ottawa Senators, and that’s 11 games without a red light for the youngster.
Meanwhile, Matt Duchene is on fire, after starting the season with 3 points in 11 games he now has 25 points in the last 22 games. Yet, both sit with 28 points on the season through 33 games, and they probably both set the cap hit for players on this team.
If Matt Duchene continues this trend then he’ll certainly justify his contract, and the six million cap hit for players on this team. Nonetheless, Nathan MacKinnon will probably still get more money than Duchene in the long run, but if Dutchy can continue this all season then MacK may be looking at a bridge deal to start.
Anyway, that’s the scoop right now as far as salary structure is concerned for this team, but I don’t want MacKinnon to have a similar season to Duchene.
I want MacKinnon to bust free from the cocoon and start flying, because I don’t care how expensive that gets. With this current slump in place, MacK has some things to figure out in order to get back on the scoreboard.
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And, if anyone has been watching him as closely as I have, they’ll notice that he’s starting to get frustrated on the ice. Last night, he must have scrunched face and hit his stick on the ice at least 3-4 times after missing the net.
Yet, he still leads the Avs in shots by a mile with 104 on the season, the only one closer is Matt Duchene with 87. Eventually, they’ll start going in.
Why Might MacK be Struggling
This is a tough question to answer. Sometimes guys just get in slumps and have a hard time coming out of them. But, MacK is still flying on the ice, and still making great decisions with the puck, I think he’s just gripping his stick a little too tightly.
Folks, worry not you must, the Force Will Awaken soon within young master MacK; in fact, in my last article I called for a big game from him against the Isles. Unfortunately he showed with a blank on the scoresheet, but he won 66.7% of his face-offs, and had a few golden scoring chances.
He’s just missing the net with a lot of shots recently, he only registered 1 on net last night, but he fired off at least 6 or 7 in good areas.
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So, I’ll remedy the situation with a call for MacK to have a good night against the Oilers. It’s really a shame that Connor McDavid won’t make the lineup tonight due to injury because it would be fun to watch these two kids go at it.
Nathan MacKinnon will break out of this slump, and when he does this team can look forward to a lot of wins as long as Semyon Varlamov and Dutchy continue slamming the ice with their Dylan spit hot fire.
What’s on Tap
Like I said, the Oilers come to town tonight, and after ringing off six wins in a row, they’ve dropped their last two to the Rangers and Hawks, getting outscored 8-2 in those 2 games.
The Oilers have had goaltending issues this year so far, so look for our top line to smoke twine with vulcanized rubber.
Puck Drop is a late one at 8:00 PM Mountain time tonight.
I’ll be at a concert in Keystone if any of you readers are fans of Keller Williams, the one man loop show extraordinaire will be joined by some fellow musicians for a good ‘ol time. Don’t be concerned my faithful readers, I will be streaming the game on my phone before the concert, and during the set break.
I do have an article to write for Sunday after all, so the game must be watched and enjoyed. I’m expecting a fun one for tonight, so let’s have at it shall we?
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What do you think Avs fans? When will MacK get back in his groove? How does it begin tonight? And what can we expect from this team moving into the future? Litter the comment section with your opinions because I enjoy reading them when they are there.