The MacKinndy 500

“I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door”

– The Proclaimers

500 is… A lot. 500 is almost always a lot. Walking 500 miles? You’d be hurting. Probably limping. Eating 500 hot dogs? You’d probably burst. Breaking that five dollar bill down into 500 pennies? It would be hell to spend, and good luck getting that all in your pockets in the first place. But to score 500 points in the NHL? It’s tremendous. Momentous. Only a few hundred guys have ever done it… well, ever.

Which made a nice and understandably understated moment this last week when Colorado Avalanche wunderkind Nathan MacKinnon notched his 500th career point on a slick assist to Mikko Rantanen, MacKinnon’s second assist of the game. Big Mac joins Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Evgeni Malkin, and Patrick Kane among the active players who have crossed the threshold.

As the first player from his draft class to get past 500, Nate was his typically humble self, only wishing he’d made the number sooner. It says even more about his approach that he got off to such a stuttering start over his first few seasons, before becoming the almost-100-point-per-season machine he’s finally emerged to be. That he managed 38 points in his second season is now a surprising footnote to what looks to be a stellar career. After four seasons of less-than-expected production, Mac finally realized he was the best player on the ice, with a new coach and soulmate-linemate each shoring him up and egging him on, finally out from behind the shadow of the less-than-healthy group that had been weighing him down.

With his scoring explosion of the last few years, MacKinnon has passed fellow star and captain-soulmate-linemate Gabriel Landeskog by a fair margin, with Landy 37 points shy of the mark, one he’ll hopefully also attain this season. That Landeskog has two more seasons under his belt than MacKinnon only further illustrates the type of fire Nathan has been playing with. Hockey-Reference.com lists Mac as the ninth-best player to ever lace up skates for the organization, and he’s got so much further to go.

Nate is out of the gates as hot as he’s ever been, with seven points in his first four games of this season as part of a line that is meshing so well as to strike terror in the hearts of any opponent. Should Colorado find their way back to that Stanley Cup pinnacle, they’ll be riding the comet that is MacKinnon’s scoring. Now he’s just got 1,130-something more to go to catch the Avs icon who’s lifted a couple of Cups himself. If MacKinnon ever did catch Super Joe Sakic (1,641), he’d also find himself amongst the top ten points producers in NHL history. So… Congratulations, and get back in there, Nate. You walked that 500 miles. Now the Avalanche faithful would love to see you walk at least 500 more.