Nathan MacKinnon: "It was a sh**** game"

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For the Colorado Avalanche, the lighting of the lamp for the second time in a game, the first time they’ve done it since October 29th, made everything feel like it was going their way. The feeling was merely fleeting.

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon finally scored his second goal of the season Tuesday night. MacKinnon has been one of the key Avalanche players struggling to score as the team has stumbled out of the gates with a punchless offense.

His goal tonight was the go-ahead goal at the time, putting the Avalanche on top 2-1 early in the second period. At the time, it was the proverbial monkey off his back.

“At the time it felt great,” MacKinnon said. “I thought I’ve been playing really well the last five, six games and been really snakebitten. The goalies have been making really great saves on me.”

“Mikko (Rantanen) has been playing really well feeding me. I was joking with (Rantanen) that he was probably going to ask for a different linemate here soon if I can’t start scoring for him. It did feel good at the time but now it’s erased from my mind, for sure.”

Even though his line has been clicking, the lack of actual production was sticking out as a glaring issue on an Avalanche team averaging just two goals-per-game, good for 29th in the NHL, or second-to-last.

The combination of Rantanen and MacKinnon with center Matt Duchene had another solid overall game against the Coyotes but after another home loss, Colorado’s third in five home games this season, the good feelings of finally scoring a goal were all but gone.

Losing at the Pepsi Center has become all too common in the last two seasons. MacKinnon struggled to explain why this group continues to disappoint in front of the home crowd.

“We had a tough start the last two years and a bad start at home,” MacKinnon told BSN Denver. “For whatever reason, we’re a better team on the road. I don’t know, exactly. Maybe playing with a lead. I don’t think we’ve scored the first goal…three of 12 games we’ve scored the first goal this season. I think playing with the lead at home and coming out stronger, we’ll be better.”

MacKinnon could certainly be on to something as having to constantly play from behind is one of the hallmarks of losing teams. He knows his team needs to make the adjustment and despite it being a focal point, the message still isn’t getting through.

“We’re stressing having good starts and we’re just not getting it done,” MacKinnon said with a thousand-yard stare on his face. “We’re a sleepy starting team and that’s not the way you win. I don’t know how many percentage of games are won by the team who scores the first goal but I know it’s high and we’re not going to go anywhere by being sleepy in the first.”

Colorado gave up the lead to Arizona just 28 seconds into the game and even though they caught up and briefly took the lead, they still couldn’t build off their mid-game success as the Coyotes just kept pressing. The Avalanche struggled a great deal to generate anything in the third period in which they trailed by two after going down 4-2 11 seconds into the period.

“Yeah, it was a shitty game,” MacKinnon admitted. “I thought we had a solid 40 minutes. We had a bad end of the second but we were just chasing it in the third, horrible pressing. We didn’t have a shot in the last three, four minutes. It’s frustrating generating nothing out there. It’s a bad night.”

He’s certainly correct about that. While many things about the Avalanche have improved so far this season, bad home losses to teams that aren’t very good is one of the things that kept them from the postseason last season and could threaten to do the same this year if they don’t figure out how to bank points in the standings against weaker opponents.