Colorado Avalanche Superstar Nathan MacKinnon Practicing with Friends

The Colorado Avalanche’s superstar, Nathan MacKinnon, has been spending his offseason training with fellow big names in hockey as well as some teammates.

Colorado Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon is renowned for his off-season training. He’s long been a client of trainer Andy O’Brien, a man who works his clients to beyond perfect their game. O’Brien focuses down to the muscular level to get his clients to their peak performance.

Well, MacKinnon was introduced to O’Brien by one of the trainer’s most famous clients, Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby. He and MacKinnon both grew up in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. Of course, Crosby is eight years older than Nate, so they didn’t really grow up together.

Nonetheless, Crosby took his fellow Nova Scotian superstar under his wing, and MacKinnon has more than prospered.

Well, the two have become fast friends, and they often spend large parts of the summer together. Sure, some of that is time spent making commercials for Tim Hortons, but they also do a lot of skating together.

Well, this summer Sports and Moore founder John Moore chronicled some of MacKinnon’s skates with Crosby and other friends.

I hadn’t realized that Boston Bruins

licker

winger Brad Marchand is also from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Well, he skated with Sid and Nate in several of their practices.

Here’s the first one John Moore chronicles:

I like that the players wear their team practice jerseys. None of the others teams skate in a royal blue like the Colorado Avalanche, so I can quickly find MacKinnon. Quick identification is important because he moves fast — blink, and you’ll miss him.

Upcoming is another video. This one features the players scoring goals on the goalie unfortunate enough to be at this practice.

Hey, check out the 0:54 mark! We have another Colorado Avalanche player. Well, a prospect — Shane Bowers. He’s another Halifaxer. (Is that what you call them?)

At the 2:20 mark we get to see MacKinnon skating with Crosby.

Sidney Crosby turned 32 on August 7, which apparently is noteworthy for John Moore. He chronicles that the following is Sid’s first skate as a 32-year-old:

Watch MacKinnon’s sick moves starting at 1:46. The action starting at 2:07 is downright filthy.

We also see another Colorado Avalanche player, Maritimer Ryan Graves!

Here’s one more video of Nathan MacKinnon practicing with his friends. Apparently Halifax Mooseheads assistant coach Jon Greenwood ran this particular practice.

Indeed, he told John Moore, “The work ethic among the top players is special and without a doubt contagious throughout the group. Its a great mixture of fun, passion, and competitiveness. It means a lot to me to be a small part of it.”

You can see some MacKinnon one-on-one at 3:29.

Finally, Moore highlights the special chemistry that MacKinnon and Crosby share:

Nathan MacKinnon is an elite player in his prime. I’d say he has nothing left to learn about the game from Sid Crosby. However, one thing I’d like him to learn is playing with a chip on the shoulder because you’re a superstar, not an underdog.

That’s MacKinnon’s role now — superstar.

Gategate Update

As we all know, the Colorado Avalanche had a goal called offside because Gabriel Landeskog took too long to get off the ice during a line change. Well, I always wondered about that gate. First of all, it’s customary for the backup goalie to open the gate for players exiting the ice. Second of all, wouldn’t a sticky gate be an advantage to the home team if plays get called off this way?

Well, Nathan MacKinnon did an interview right after the season ended with Paule Bissonnette for a hockey-related podcast. Sure enough, the seat for the backup goalie was set up to make it awkward for him to reach the gate. What’s more, the gate had been sticky all evening.

This seems like a really sneaky way to cheat, thus giving another reason for the offside rule to be changed.