Colorado's imperfect superstar continues driving return to relevance

Superstars are made in all kinds of different ways. Connor McDavid fights the uphill battle to prove he’s actually human (he swears he is which is exactly what a hockey cyborg would say). P.K. Subban had so much personality his original team felt compelled to move on from him. If a superstar plays for the Florida Panthers, is he even really a superstar? Aleksander Barkov continues to try to find out.

But here in Denver, tucked neatly into the shadows of the Rocky Mountains is the budding legacy of another superstar carrying a once-proud franchise back to the fringes of the hockey subconscious. One who didn’t immediately begin destroying the NHL when he arrived and took his time to learn how to dominate this league. Back when Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg were racking up accolades on their way to two Stanley Cups and a bevy of awards that culminated in Hall of Fame inductions, Colorado was one of the centers of the hockey universe. Championship seasons had to go through the Avalanche first.

A lot has changed since those days. Namely, the Avalanche can’t seem to string together consecutive playoff seasons. Since they publicly committed to rebuilding following the bottoming out in the 2008-09 season, it’s been a frustrating series of stalled rebuild attempts complete with the trading of two-thirds of a draft class that should have taken them to back to the precipice of their previous glory.

Then came 2013 when the Avalanche got the first selection and chose Nathan MacKinnon. It’s taken time but in his fifth season, MacKinnon’s prodigious talent finally came together in a jaw-dropping campaign that nearly won him the Hart Trophy for league MVP. In the process, he carried the Avs back to the postseason just one year after an embarrassing 48-point season that will long be the bar for NHL teams to refer to as “rock bottom.” This year, in his sixth season, he has a little more help but is still the centerpiece of Colorado’s attempt to run back last year’s last-season heroics and secure a playoff position.

In a monumental matchup between two teams fighting for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, Colorado’s superstar led them once again as the Arizona Coyotes and their team of faceless men continue to try to crash the postseason party. MacKinnon’s power-play goal at 13:37 of the second period was his 39th of the season, tying the career high he set last season, and gave Colorado the 1-0 lead it has badly needed to be successful this season.

“They have a good penalty kill so we were ready for the pressure,” MacKinnon said. “They’re first in the league on the penalty kill and we did a great job on the power play. I think we went two for four or something so that’s solid. It’s nice to have Landy back on the goal line. He makes really good plays and settles things down. It’s obviously great to have him back.”

After MacKinnon powered home Gabe Landeskog’s cross-crease feed, the Avs got back to work on the power play and Derick Brassard made it 2-0 going into the second intermission. Colorado was just one period away from locking down a regulation win against the team right behind them in the playoff chase.

Because this team hasn’t been able to do anything easily this year (you know, like that mid-season slump that saw them win three out of 20 games), the Coyotes found a little good fortune on two unlikely goals late in the third period to push it to overtime.

“A couple lucky goals,” MacKinnon said shrugging off the Arizona comeback. “We had good coverage, Gabe had a good block but it came right back to [Oliver Ekman-Larsson]. We played that really well. It’s just unfortunate. Two unfortunate goals, I think the first one hit something. We had so many chances in the third to put that away. Nietsy, Calvy, Gabe had a little breakaway at the end. I thought we played well.”

Is there any concern that teams have come back on them three straight games when they were leading in the third period?

“They were just fortunate,” MacKinnon said.

Where Arizona didn’t get quite as fortunate was in not beating the Avalanche in overtime and having to deal with MacKinnon and the white-hot Philipp Grubauer in goal. MacKinnon was the only player in the shootout to score when he embarrassed Darcy Kuemper with a move that had the poor Arizona goaltender sliding helplessly out of the crease while MacKinnon easily deposited what ended up being the game’s deciding goal behind him.

“Obviously, we’d like to win that 2-0,” MacKinnon would say. “We just kind of had to make a choice in overtime. I thought we outplayed them in overtime, we had some really good looks. [Barrie] hit the crossbar late, I should have scored on that backhander at the end too. We had a choice to make. If we wanted to roll over and feel sorry for ourselves losing the lead like that or just keep pushing. We just had to look at the positives. We got a point. It wasn’t what we wanted but it was up to us to finish it off and it didn’t really matter how we got to that point as long as we played our best in overtime.”

The result wasn’t ideal but ultimately Colorado extended the two-point lead they enjoyed entering tonight’s game to three with four games to play both teams involved. The Avalanche are in the driver’s seat for their first back to back playoff seasons since 2002-03 and 2003-04 (the Avs did make it in ’04 and ’06 but ’05 was the lockout).

And while MacKinnon drives the offense, Grubauer is playing out of his mind in potentially winning next season’s starting goaltender job with his play down the stretch. He is 8-2-1 with a 1.37 GAA (!) and  .958 save percentage (!!). He has given up more than two goals just one time and has three shutouts in that stretch.

“With any goalie, you just don’t even really talk to him,” MacKinnon said. “Goalies do their own thing. They can do whatever they want as long as they stop the puck. They can get ready in a different room. They’re in their own world. Right now, Grubi is feeling it. He’s a really good goalie. It’s not like a fluke year. I think he had the best save percentage last year, or one of them, with Washington. He’s an amazing goalie and we’re lucky he’s playing so well right now.”

Less lucky are the teams now firmly chasing Colorado for the final playoff spot. While real relevance in the NHL is only achieved when you win a few playoff rounds and announce yourself as a true Stanley Cup contender, you can’t do that without making the playoffs to begin with. It’s been a long, weird year for the Avalanche but after their best player lifted them to another crucial win, they are on the verge of doing just that.

Flaws and all.