Nate the Great - The Average Everyday Insanely Great Greatness of Nathan MacKinnon

It’s easy to get swept up in an incredible season in sports, and still be missing some of the magnitude of the individual contributors who are making the magic happen. Like another denizen of Ball Arena, it’s easy to lose track of just how great Nathan MacKinnon is when you see the sort of performances he keeps putting up night after night… and then the exceptional AJ Haefele goes and puts something into quick perspective…

Nathan MacKinnon a cool 11 points behind Sakic's Avalanche record of 120 points with 18 games to play. We may never see another Avs season like this in our lives, so soak it all in

— AJ Haefele (@returnofaj) March 7, 2024

That’s simply a single stat that brings MacK’s season into some perspective, but there are so many more… Meghan Angley’s ever-excellent perspectives have been nailing down the last few weeks in terms of what Nate’s persistent excellence means…

• 31 straight games with a point at home. Tied for fourth all-time.
• Equaling Wayne Gretzky’s perfect home points record still very possible
• First Avs player to post consecutive 40-goal seasons*
• 34 multi-point games, the most in the league this year
• and as to that asterisk…

As an astute commenter observed in AJ’s post above, MacKinnon is not only on course for what amazingly seems a gimme to pass Super Joe, but is also on course to pass the great Peter Šťastný for all-time points in a season in franchise history. While Nathan is the first Avs player to record consecutive 40-goal seasons, both Šťastný and the remarkable Michel Goulet achieved the feat for the franchise with the Quebec Nordiques. For MacKinnon to be creeping up on the most hallowed names in the franchise’s history, and even something only pulled off by Gretzky… Incredible.

AJ even commented back how tough a pace it will be for MacKinnon to keep up. While he’s right, we’re also almost 80% done with the season. His pace is also very well-established. Šťastný’s points record (139) is squarely in his sights. While Goulet’s goals record (57) is far more the pipe dream (MacKinnon has 40), it’s not impossible to imagine Nate the Great averaging a goal a game the rest of the way out, either…

And that’s what it becomes to watch a player as remarkable as Nathan MacKinnon game over game, night over night. These moment that stack up to something historic can become dangerously average, when they pour out as if just anyone could do them. Because he’s not concerning himself with anything but wins all the way to a Cup, you’ll excuse him if he doesn’t care if he even passes Sakic on the list of possible achievements above. Whichever sacrifices Nate makes as this season winds down, make no mistake that he is having one of the great seasons in both team and league history. Bask in the resounding normality of a guy so great as to be mentioned amongst the best ever.