Colorado Avalanche Star Nathan MacKinnon Scared by Biz Nasty

Nathan MacKinnon, the Colorado Avalanche’s star center, may put fear into the hearts of defenders and goalies, but he got scared by a Biz Nasty joke on Media Day.

Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon was the team’s representative at the NHL Media Day that took place before the season began. Unfortunately, he got scared by Biz Nasty’s coconut.

During Media Day, the stars go around and talk to different media outlets. Sometimes the interviews are serious, but often the interviewers have some fun with the players.

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That was the case with NHL.com, who set up former player Paul Bissonnette in a room with a host of animals and a white box. Bissonnette, of course, has been making a successful career out of being a media personality for hockey since hanging up the skates as an enforcer.

The premise of the “What’s in the Box” segment is that NHL stars walk into the room, see the creatures such as snakes and cockroaches in cages, and presume they’re going to be asked to blindly touch one that’s in the white box. This presumption is promoted by Biz Nasty, who offers helpful advice about which end to touch based on the location of the head.

The star is supposed to touch the “animal” — though Biz never lies and states it’s an animal inside — and guess what it is.

All of the NHLers show trepidation at placing their hand in the box. They have to know on a logical level they’re not really going to be put in danger. However, they succumb to the psychological pressure with all the creatures in the room. It probably won’t be a dangerous snake, they think, but it might still be a snake.

Well, Biz Nasty got into MacKinnon’s head before the star center even knew what the name of the game was. When Nate strolled into the room, Biz had a pet python draped around his neck. The snake, named Jigs (or possibly Wrapunzel), seems pretty docile, but MacKinnon states outright, “I’m not going near that thing.”

So, it’s understandable why he thought there might be a live creature in the box once they got to that point in the proceedings. After all, Biz had already shown the animals in the room were more than just background props — he was willing to interact with them.

Nonetheless, that fact doesn’t completely exonerate Nate from being too afraid to even touch a coconut:

To his credit, he did have to encounter that snake before ever going near the box — and apparently the snake was sticking his tongue out at our star center. Most of the other participants only had Biz and the background cages upon first entering.

Nate can thank Florida Panthers center Vincent Trocheck — who loves to score on the Colorado Avalanche — for the snake being out in the first place. Biz Nasty took the snake out to introduce Jigs to Trocheck, who did pet him, and Nate came right after.

At least MacKinnon redeemed himself by touching the stuffed cat. To be honest, I would hope he’d be comfortable touching a real cat, too.

Anyway, check out this link for more of the What’s in the Box participants. Before Nathan MacKinnon (and Trocheck), Biz Nasty creeped out Mark Scheifele, Chris Kreider, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Auston Matthews. Next week is Max Domi.