The Colorado Avalanche have started the season on a tear, breaking franchise records seemingly every game. That’s the result of an offense as explosive as Colorado’s—relentless, fast, and skillful. At the heart of it all is Nathan MacKinnon, setting the pace and leading the charge, steadily etching his name deeper into Avalanche history.
On Sunday, MacKinnon notched a five-point night, including two goals, and in the process surpassed Peter Šťastný for third place on the Avalanche’s all-time goals list with his 381st career goal.
Maritime Hockey (@HockeyMaritime) on X
What a performance from Nathan MacKinnon as he had two goals and five points in the Colorado Avalanche’s 5-4 OT win against the Vancouver Canucks.
The 2013 first overall pick currently leads the league in both goals (14) and points (29).
#GoAvsGo
There is no shortage of superlatives to describe Nathan MacKinnon, yet even we’re beginning to exhaust the vocabulary. Entering the weekend, MacKinnon sat just behind young sensations Macklin Celebrini, 19, and Connor Bedard, 20, in the NHL scoring race. The 30-year-old’s response? A figurative “Watch this.”
Nate Dogg Is Hungry
Across back-to-back games against the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks, MacKinnon delivered a masterclass, piling up four goals and five assists for nine points. Colorado dismantled Edmonton in a 9–1 rout, then outlasted Vancouver 5–4 in an overtime thriller—each night punctuated by MacKinnon’s unmistakable imprint on the ice.
Just when you thought the kids were pulling away, MacKinnon—carrying a noticeable chip—took a very on-brand chip out of Celebrini and Bedard’s early scoring cushion. If the NHL adopted a tradition from Major League Baseball, MacKinnon is in contention for the hockey Triple Crown. He leads in goals (14) and points (29). However, his 15 assists are technically tied for sixth best in the NHL, as Evgeni Malkin leads the way with 18 assists, Connor McDavid is in 2nd with 17, while three players, including Cale Makar are tied with 16 assists before we find MacKinnon with 15.
When you add it all up, MacKinnon is on track for a career-best season—an impressive feat considering he tallied 140 points in 2023–24, with 51 goals and 89 assists while playing all 82 games for the fourth time in his career. Though the season is still young, he’s pacing for 72 goals and 77 assists, totaling a staggering 149 points. For comparison, last year’s Art Ross and Ted Lindsay winner, Nikita Kucherov of Tampa Bay, finished with 121 points, but MacKinnon is showing early that he could go even further. Could we be looking at a sweep of the Art Ross, Ted Lindsay, and Hart Memorial trophies? The ceiling is sky-high for Nathan MacKinnon, but it’s just as high for the rest of his teammates.
The Avs Are a Scary Bunch
What makes the Avalanche even more intimidating, however, is their depth. It’s one thing to marvel at the offensive exploits of the Oilers, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl typically posting astronomical numbers as a duo, but Edmonton is top-heavy. They can deliver some big bombs, sure, but they also leave plenty of openings for opponents to exploit—evidenced by their eight-goal loss on home ice just a few nights ago to this team, and back-to-back defeats in the Stanley Cup Finals the last two seasons.
Colorado is utterly stacked from top to bottom. You have two players in MacKinnon and Makar who are the best in their position. Forget the term arguably. It’s not even close right now. These two are the very best in their position and Martin Nečas, fresh off that eight-year, $92 million contract extension, give him a few years and maybe he’ll be in the conversation as the best winger in the NHL, but time will tell. And then you have to account for the rest of the team.
2022 Vibes?
15 different Avalanche players have found the back of the net so far this season, combining for a total of 64 goals. For context, the next closest team, the Montreal Canadiens, also have 15 goal scorers, but they’ve managed only 57 goals—showing that Colorado is not just spreading the scoring around, but also getting more production out of each individual through 16 games.
And of course, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the Nate Dogg himself driving the puck up the ice like a man possessed and snapping goals and setting up plays from every angle imaginable. But when I look at this team, there’s a lot of similarities to the 2022 Cup team.
There’s that chemistry, the deep camaraderie, the genuine respect for one another, and a shared goal of becoming champions again. For many on this team, it would be their first taste of a championship, and for Brent Burns, a chance to cap his career at the very pinnacle.
MacKinnon Triple Crown Bound?
For Nathan MacKinnon, what could be more emblematic of supremacy than claiming the NHL Triple Crown? Only five players in league history have accomplished this rare feat: Howie Lorenz, Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito, Wayne Gretzky—who astonishingly achieved it seven times—and Mario Lemieux, who managed it twice. Even more remarkable, however, is that Gretzky alone paired the Triple Crown with a Stanley Cup victory in the same season, doing so three times in 1984, 1985, and 1987. In 1988, while Gretzky captured his final Cup with the Oilers, Lemieux captured his first Triple Crown that season, though the Pittsburgh Penguins somehow failed to make the playoffs despite his historical individual campaign.
But if MacKinnon can capture the Triple Crown, he’d be the first to do it in more than 33 years. And if the Avalanche capture the Cup this season, MacKinnon will enter hockey immortality.
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