DENVER, CO - MARCH 02: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates a goal against the Minnesota Wild at the Pepsi Center on March 2, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche defeated the Wild 7-1. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon scored a lot of pretty goals. Here are five of the most stunning examples.
Colorado Avalanche star center Nathan MacKinnon scored a lot of goals last season — 39 in the regular season and three in the playoffs, to be exact. And, of course, they were all beautiful goals because they were Colorado Avalanche goals.
In fact, 42 goals is a lot to choose from. And, spoiler alert, MacKinnon actually doesn’t score a ton of ugly goals. Pretty much the majority of his tallies are skill goals.
Therefore, I had to narrow down the list a little. So, I took out all the game-winners because we already saw them in this post:
That still left a fair amount of goals for me to sift through. So, as a general rule, I didn’t consider any power play goals — there were some pretty ones, but Nate showcases elite skill at even strength. He doesn’t need the man-advantage.
I also didn’t consider any goals from games in which the Avalanche ultimately lost. Again, that was just a little arbitrary so I could narrow down the list.
There were still plenty of stunning goals to sift through from last season. So, I added one more constraint — the goal needed to make me chortle in glee when I watched it. With that final parameter in place, here are the five amazing Nathan MacKinnon goals I came up with.
MacK Daddy Special
To give you an idea of how hard — but ultimately gratifying — the task I set out for myself was, let’s start out with the Nathan MacKinnon Special. Like I said before, MacKinnon has elite skills, and he scores mostly skill goals. This goal he scored against the Washington Capitals is actually a typical goal from our young star:
As soon as MacKinnon enters the zone and the puck comes toward him, all five Capitals players get him in their sights. The nearest Capital is the ever-dangerous Tom Wilson — not only is he a bad mudder, but he’s a good defensive forward.
No such thing as good defense when MacKinnon has the puck. He slips past Wilson and sneaks past two more Caps players — the only reason we’re not saying he broke their ankles is they amazingly managed to stay upright.
It’s just MacKinnon and goalie (and future teammate) Philipp Grubauer. Poor Grubi, he never had a chance. MacKinnon unleashes his sniper wrist shot, and that’s a goal.
Remember, the Washington Capitals went on to win the Stanley Cup. And MacKinnon performed surgery on them in this game. With his typical goal
Let’s move on to a really chortle-worthy goal.
MacKinnon’s Rude Wrister
Sometimes you watch MacKinnon score and you think, “Damn, Nate, that was rude to the goalie.” This was one of those goals:
The play starts in the Avalanche’s own end. Mikko Rantanen gets the puck and passes it ahead to MacKinnon, who’s waiting just past the red line. He whirls around and dekes the linesman — seriously, linesman, be careful.
Never mind — one of MacKinnon’s sometimes forgotten traits is his agility. He gets past the linesman and sets his sights on defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Vlasic does a good job of trying to take away the shot, but not good enough for Nathan’s sniping. MacKinnon just wrists the shot around Vlasic, threading it between goalie Martin Jones‘ legs.
He makes it look so easy.
No one claims Nathan MacKinnon’s speed is easy — not to defend and definitely not to contain. Let’s watch a goal that utilizes his speed.
Opening Playoff Tally
Almost entirely because of Nathan MacKinnon’s breakout season, the Colorado Avalanche made the playoffs. Well, MacKinnon took his scoring prowess into the playoffs against the Predators. He scored his first goal in Game 2:
Now, technically this goal isn’t five-on-five. Both teams have a player in the penalty box, though, so they’re still even strength. Plus, we get to watch MacKinnon fly.
Nathan has to work his way past two Predators defenders — by then, teams knew the deal. With a final step, he gets past the last pest and speeds across the offensive zone. Still at full speed, he puts the puck on his backhand and whips the puck past goalie Pekka Rinne. Sorry-not-sorry, Pekka.
Pekka Rinne won the Vezina Trophy for goal tending. The votes were cast before MacKinnon did this to him.
(Yes, I know the Colorado Avalanche lost this game. I’m going to break some more rules in the next slide.)
Red Wings Goals
Like I said, I know this is supposed to be a total of five goals, but Nathan MacKinnon just scored so many stunners. I’m just going to have to cheat on this one and show you the two he scored against our Arch Rivals, the Detroit Red Wings.
The first goal is the more impressive of the two:
It starts like so many of them do, with MacKinnon corralling the puck in the neutral zone, and the defenders taking a step back. Nathan does his best Peter Forsberg impression in shielding the puck from the defenseman. As he glides past the faceoff dot, he unleashes a backhander that flies past goalie Jared Coreau.
That’s a slick goal. I also love his little flare of temper as he pushes the Red Wing player aside. However, I almost appreciate this next play more:
The play starts in standard MacK Daddy fashion. However, as MacKinnon makes it past the defender, he — gasp! — fans on the shot! Well, never mind. Even though defenseman Nick Jensen pushes him wide of the net, Nate stays with the puck. He whirls around the back of the net and sink the puck in on the wrap-around.
That is not the prettiest of Nathan MacKinnon goals. However, I just love how he stays with the puck the whole way.
Ok, now on to what is one of the prettiest of Nathan MacKinnon goals.
MacKinnon’s Stickhandling School
Here we see many of Nathan MacKinnon’s elite skills in play:
It starts with his agility, as he dances past one-two-three Florida Panthers players. But they keep cycling around him, almost like a net closing in on him. He continues to weave around their sticks and bodies. The play ends with MacKinnon going one-on-one with the goalie and beating him with his classic wrist shot.
But in the middle of all that dancing was the beauty of MacKinnon’s stickwork. You have to have a special awareness to know where to manipulate the puck with all those defenders around you. And you have to have soft hands to maneuver the puck the way you want past all those sticks and skates.
What a beauty of a goal by our star.
Next. Mount Puckmore Nominees. dark
So, 39 goals is a lot. I hope I have a bigger problem next summer. I hope Nathan MacKinnon has scored 40+ goals in the regular season and led the Colorado Avalanche farther into the playoffs. Having to watch more MacK Daddy Specials — what a beautiful quandary to have.
