Colorado Avalanche Star Nathan MacKinnon Vents Frustration with Bednar

Colorado Avalanche star center Nathan MacKinnon had heated words with coach Jared Bednar. How significant was the interaction, though?

The Colorado Avalanche are losing. Despite a stellar start, the Avs are looking like a pedestrian team that are dangerously close to falling clean out of playoff contention.

You know who doesn’t like losing? Every competitor. You know who is a competitor? Every NHLer — you don’t get into pro sports without being a fierce competitor.

You know who loathes losing with every fiber of his being? Apparently Nathan MacKinnon.

It was the worst-kept secret last season that our star center was the main, if not only, reason the Avalanche went from a 48-point season to making the playoffs in 12 months. This season, Nathan started off in god-mode, just like he left off. Only this time, it looked like the rest of the team was ready to follow suit, not hang on his coattails.

That may not be the case outside of his linemates. Unfortunately, secondary scoring is spotty at best. The Avs have no true second line. Defense is spotty at best. And goal tending has suddenly, inexplicably fallen off a cliff.

And MacKinnon is pissed. Sorry for the expletive — and don’t use that word, kiddos — but there’s no other way to describe what happened tonight between our superstar and coach Jared Bednar.

Modern-day cameras are all-seeing, and social media broadcasts all. And then bloggers like me further magnify these moments. However, this may well be a defining moment in Colorado Avalanche lore, and I have thoughts.

Let’s look at the first hint of trouble, brought to us as always by Nathan Rudolph:

In that video, we just see MacKinnon venting a little frustration with someone over his shoulder. It looks like there’s an eff-bomb, but, hey, we’re all adults here. (Unless you’re not — then you shouldn’t be dropping the eff-bomb.)

Turns out, per Nathan Rudolph, there was more to the exchange than just those few seconds:

You have to look closely in the background of the play to see that MacKinnon is, indeed, venting his frustration on coach Jared Bednar. After throwing his water bottle down, he continues to yap at Bednar. Captain Gabriel Landeskog appears to try and either calm Nate down or tell him to stop. Nate jerks away and… falls off the bench.

Unfortunately, Sportsnet magnifies the last part:

Ok, Jared, I don’t know how it is in the coaching world. However, in the teaching world, if a student — even a star student — is losing his, ah, cool, you don’t fan the flames by arguing your own point. He’s not hearing you, and your best tactic is to calm yourself down to calm him down.

That doesn’t seem to be the case here. MacKinnon continues to mouth off because Bednar has lashed back — and that’s the point where Landeskog steps in. And Nate falls off the bench.

Now, I don’t know Nathan MacKinnon, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of guy to laugh such a gaffe off. Indeed, Landeskog helps Nate back onto the bench, where he proceeds to yap a little more. (Side note: that’s pretty impressive how Nate seems to yank his body back onto the bench by virtue of thigh strength alone.)

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I don’t know that last comment was, but it looks more like a coupe de grace than an apology. The apology may come later — may have already occurred — but Nate wasn’t feeling it in that moment.

Now, on to my personal commentary. I gather MacKinnon is the one doing the most criticism. Except for fanning the flames a little at the end, Bednar seems to be on the receiving end. Do I think he coached the game poorly? Not really. The Avalanche lost the game — the last two games — mostly due to poor goal tending and a breakdown in defense.

Is this a significant interaction? I don’t know. I understand MacKinnon has vented his frustration on Bednar before. I should imagine when you get that many men in a room together, especially when they’re all fierce competitors, tempers are going to flare during losing streaks.

Do we here in Avs Nation need to worry? Apparently our MacKinnon has an Irish temper. I never doubted that, to be honest. But I don’t think he’s going to go full Patrick Roy and demand a trade, if that’s what you’re worried about.

And if he did because he couldn’t get along with the coach? Well, GM Joe Sakic isn’t stupid. We don’t have a Nathan MacKinnon anywhere else in the pipeline. And the team is built around him, not Bednar.

Besides, like I said, tempers flare. Just this season we saw two St. Louis Blues players fight each other in practice and the Dallas Stars CEO publicly criticize their two stars. And, you know, the circus that is the Ottawa Senators. (By the way, congratulations to Matt Duchene on the birth of his son.)

In the end, I’m glad to see the passion from our star player. I know he’s frustrated — we all are. I much prefer the passion to the canned apathy we sometimes see in post-game pressers.

Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon has always been one to indulge in a bit of his Irish temper. Being Italian myself, I have no problem with that.