Rantanen shows no rust in leading Avalanche over Flames

Preseason nothin’.

As Colorado got off to the kind of start it wanted with a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames, it was the player who did not play for the Avalanche in the preseason that drove the bus.

Mikko Rantanen, who agreed to a six-year contract during Colorado’s final preseason game last weekend, reminded everyone except a couple of nerd twins in Minnesota just why he was worth the wait.

Two goals, one on the power play, and ten shot attempts (five on goal) pretty accurately told the story of the 22-year-old Finn’s night. That shot has propelled him to three 20-goal seasons in the first three years of his career and tonight showed zero rust.

“Extra time to work on it, I guess,” Rantanen said with a laugh. “Hopefully it continues this season.”

It certainly should continue this season as he and linemates Nathan MacKinnon and Gabe Landeskog picked up right where the left off after laying waste to the NHL last year. Each had an assist on one of Rantanen’s goal but MacKinnon’s was a focus postgame as he made an impressive cross-ice feed for Rantanen’s one-timer, which put Colorado ahead 4-2 and ended up as the game-winner.

“He looks even better than last year I think,” Rantanen said of his center. “That’s huge for us. He loves to score goals and he finds those open spots so its great to play with him.”

The win capped off a crazy week for Rantanen as he hurried across the planet to get to Colorado and get prepared to play games that matter.

“Everything happened really quick,” Rantanen said. “I got a call last Saturday and now I’m here. It’s already been four or five days and played the first game, too. It happened quick. Felt surprisingly good today. Probably going to take a couple games to get fresh legs.”

His play tonight was good enough to make one wonder if the preseason was even necessary. Rantanen laughed at the idea but admitted he probably wouldn’t be able to do that again, saying “I don’t think it’s allowed. Getting fired if I do that. I don’t want that to happen. Maybe [in six years].”

Jokes aside, Rantanen also couldn’t help but notice the fan reaction when he was announced during the pregame introduction of this year’s opening-night roster.

“It feels unbelievable,” Rantanen admitted. “The crowd here is amazing. They support us whether we lose or when we win. That’s exactly what we need as a team.”

Every year there are players who arrive to their teams late due to contract issues. Slow starts are always the concern, especially for goal scorers. That clearly was not part of Rantanen’s plan.

“I can’t deny that everyone loves to score goals especially when the team wins,” he said. “It feels good but I don’t know if I feel too much pressure about it. I just have to keep going like this.”

He keeps going like this and last year’s 87-points might be in the rearview when they arrive at Game 82.

While the rest of the world looks for their big mood, Colorado has its ‘Big Moose’ and he’s already on a tear.

TAKEAWAYS

• One of the best questions coming into this year was the PK unit. With Ian Cole out and TPatrik Nemeth gone, the guys relied on from last year were different tonight. The broken communication between Erik Johnson and Ryan Graves on the second Calgary goal is the kind of thing that typically comes with experience, the one thing those two simply don’t have together.
• I’m really not sure why the second Colorado goal wasn’t blown dead in the neutral zone for a high stick. Landeskog clearly hit it above his shoulder before corralling it. I was checking the rulebook for anything that might provide an answer but it looks like a call they just missed.
• Joonas Donskoi also got two goals tonight. Pretty successful Avalanche debut by a guy who tore up the preseason.
• Secondary scoring was a big issue over the summer. Obviously it’s just one game but 12 of Colorado’s 18 skaters registered points tonight. That’ll win you plenty of games.
• The NHL might want to look at the high hit laid on Rantanen by Matthew Tkachuk in the first period. Looked a lot like an elbow to the head but luckily Rantanen was fine.
• Game 1 of the season…lots of penalties. Loooots. This is, of course, standard practice as more penalties are called early in the season but tonight there were an awful lot of calls that could be categorized as weak.
• Val Nichushkin keeps up the play he showed tonight, nobody is ever going to trust my opinion on a free agent signing again. He was awesome.
• Conor Timmins got the solo rookie lap treatment, which has not been a regular thing for the Avalanche in recent years. When he scores his first point, I expect we’ll see the Avalanche custom of receiving a water bottle to the face. Regardless, cool moment for him.
• Timmins said postgame he had his mom, dad, aunts, uncles, and several friends from back home in town to see his NHL debut. It’s not quite the few hundred people who come out to see Girard when the Avs are in Montreal but it wasn’t too shabby.
• Colorado scored two PP goals in six preseason games. Opening night? Two PP goals.
• It was hard not to feel frustrated by Philipp Grubauer’s performance when Colorado’s shot suppression was so good early in the game but the first two goals weren’t ones he could really do much about. The third goal wasn’t great but he locked it down in the third period when he had to.

FANCY STUFF