Rantanen hat trick forces spotlight onto overlooked rookie

The echoes are beginning to stir at the Pepsi Center.

Fresh off a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets, the Colorado Avalanche came storming out of the gate against a Montreal Canadiens squad that embarrassed them to the tune of a 10-1 beatdown on December 10. The onslaught was led by 20-year old rookie Mikko Rantanen, whose solid-yet-unspectacular year has been lost in the shuffle in what could go down as one of the NHL’s greatest rookie classes ever.

The soft-spoken Finn admitted the beatdown from December, which was the featured game on “Hockey Night in Canada”, was on the team’s mind before the puck dropped.

“I think we earned a little payback after what happened in Montreal,” Rantanen said after the 4-0 victory. “Nobody was happy with it and it was embarrassing. We were really sharp tonight and we played a solid sixty minutes. (Avalanche goaltender Calvin Pickard) was great at the other end so it was a great game.”

Rantanen started it off just 28 seconds into the game with a wrist shot just inside the blue line that found its way past All-Star goalie Carey Price. Always humble, Rantanen pointed to the work done by linemates Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon as key factors in the game’s first goal.

“I was surprised, yeah,” Rantanen admitted. “It was a great job by Landy and MacK to go to the net. It’s hard to score on Price that far if nobody is going to the net so it was great for them.”

The Avalanche were just getting started and an Andreas Martinsen goal at 2:25 of the first gave the Avalanche a 2-0 lead and served as their own punch to the jaw the Canadiens gave them back in December.

“I think the first six shifts we went really good,” Rantanen said. “We got two goals and that’s a very good start. As good a team as Montreal is, they’re very good defensively and have the best goalie in the league so it was a great start.”

A great start gave way to a more impressive ending for both Colorado and Rantanen as he continued finding the back of the net. A second period deflection and third period one-timer added up to a hat trick for Colorado’s prized rookie forward, the first of his fledgling career.

“Obviously, it’s a dream come true,” he said. “You watch other guys like when you’re younger you watch guys score hat tricks and the crowd is going wild it’s a dream come true. The most important thing still is two points.”

The two points were great but given how far back Colorado is from every other team in the league, they’re borderline irrelevant. The team’s second consecutive win featured another showcase of young talent leading the way as budding defenseman Nikita Zadorov provided the fireworks against the Jets over the weekend.

In fact, given the absences of Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie, arguably Colorado’s best two defensemen, the spotlight on Zadorov has only grown as he’s continued to elevate his play. That attention has taken away some of the shine from the player most hyped to be joining the Avalanche this season in Rantanen, who won co-Rookie of the Year in the AHL last season after a dominant season-long performance for the San Antonio Rampage.

Toss that into the mix with the aforementioned rookie class featuring the fantastic trio in Toronto of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander along with Winnipeg sniper and fellow Finn Patrik Laine and Rantanen isn’t even the most hyped rookie from his own country. Given the success of Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, Rantanen might not even be the second-most hyped rookie from Finland this year.

None of that takes away from his importance to the Avalanche both today and in the future. His game has started to round into serious form as he’s now scored five goals in his last five games as part of Colorado’s top line and it certainly looks like he’ll be manning the right side of MacKinnon’s line for years to come. Where has some of that recent success come from?

“I’ll say two things,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar began. “(Rantanen) has been watching a lot of video with (assistant coach) Tim (Army) on offensive zone play, o-zone entries. We’re just trying to encourage all of our guys really…for a team that doesn’t score that much for a lot of the season we sure don’t want to shoot the puck, you know? We’re trying to encourage our guys to use their skill to get into shooting positions instead of looking to make a real fancy play. You know when you put pucks in traffic to the net, things happen.”

“Even on the power play, it’s a great shot,” Bednar said about Rantanen’s third goal. “It’s on and off his tape. It doesn’t have to be a perfect shot. It’s just got to be on and off your tape to the net before the goalie can get set so we’ve been working on some things like that, especially Tim with him and I think it’s paid a few dividends for us. Plus, the experience of playing in the league, it takes time to learn where your space is and where you can attack.”

What does his head coach see for the occasionally-overlooked rookie sensation, who after tonight’s game is currently on pace for a 20-goal, 43-point season?

“I’ve always felt he could be really good,” Bednar stated. “He’s a young, a real young player. First full year in the NHL and like I said that experience, knowing how he has to play against certain players and where he can get creative and where…just how he can create scoring chances and shot attempts to the net. That line has been good. He’s a big part of that and a big part of our team.”

At the end of the day, the reality is these guys are playing a game and the small moments are usually some of the most special along the way. For Rantanen, seeing the hats on the ice was a moment he’ll take with him the rest of his career.

“It was pretty funny, actually,” he said. “It’s a dream come true, like I said, and the guys were coming to say ‘good job’ so it was a great, great feeling.”

While the Avalanche might be mired in last place in the NHL, far from the distinction they once regularly basked in among the elite teams in the NHL, tonight’s performance was a reminder there are brighter days to come at the Pepsi Center and they just may not be far off.

The echoes of the Avalanche glory days are stirring.