When Nathan MacKinnon was born on Sept. 1, 1995, Jaromir Jagr had already scored 157 career goals and won three Stanley Cups. The Nordiques were relocating from Quebec to Colorado, MacKinnon's future home. Today, MacKinnon still isn't old enough to legally drink, and won't be for another 852 days.
Stanley Cup playoffs: Nathan MacKinnon is here, so let’s all get used to it
After a strong regular season, Nathan MacKinnon announced himself to a national audience with a standout first round.
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There’s no denying though that what the 18-year-old phenom lacks in age, he makes up for (and then some) in skill level.
It was a bit of a surprise when MacKinnon's name was called first in the 2013 NHL Draft. With the likes of Seth Jones, Jonathan Drouin, and Aleksander Barkov all highly touted prospects, MacKinnon was a sure fire first round selection, but by no means a runaway top overall choice.
There's no questioning right now though that the Avalanche got their guy. MacKinnon, who should win the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's top rookie, thrust himself into the national picture with an explosive performance in this year's postseason, despite his team's seven-game loss to Minnesota in Round 1.
Let’s take a deep look at the exhibition of the skills that make MacKinnon so dynamic and so effective in today’s NHL.
Skating ability and body control
It’s one thing to skate fast. It’s another to be able to skate fast and turn on a dime (just ask Luis Mendoza). But what MacKinnon does that makes him so hard to catch is not only play at such a high pace, but do so with supreme body control and great vision of the ice (which we’ll get into later).
It’s that blend of quickness and control that ended in MacKinnon breaking Jared Spurgeon’s ankles en route to this highlight-reel goal.
The play gets off to a pretty pedestrian start, but MacKinnon's first smart move is coming back in the neutral zone to get the puck. With Minnesota trying to force Paul Stastny up the boards, MacKinnon does well to give Stastny an outlet to target.
This is when we first get a glimpse of that body control. Minnesota still wants to force Colorado up the boards, and MacKinnon is looking the defender off in that direction. But recognizing how upright Mikko Koivu is, MacKinnon plants with his left leg, shifts his weight, and darts into the open ice.
Now that MacKinnon is at the next level, Minnesota is again going to try to force him outside. Hitting the blue line on a 2-on-2 -- with three Wild backcheckers trailing the play -- MacKinnon can either try to make something happen toward the goal, or hold the puck up and wait for reinforcements. Again, by looking the defender into the middle of the ice in a misdirection play, MacKinnon changes Spurgeon's posture and sets him up to get beat.
A closer look shows exactly how MacKinnon faked out Spurgeon. With him opposite MacKinnon and playing so upright, another quick directional change via a decisive weight shift leaves Spurgeon in his tracks and MacKinnon with more open ice.
The other thing MacKinnon does here is get Ilya Bryzgalov moving right-to-left. And with Bryzgalov struggling to stop shots directed at his blocker side, MacKinnon fires it back across the grain, catching Bryzgalov off guard for the goal.
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MacKinnon's speed also frees up ice for his teammates. On this goal scored by Nick Holden, MacKinnon torches the Wild in transition and really messes up their zone spacing and containment.
Again, this play starts with MacKinnon coming back to retrieve the puck, which, while simple, is an intelligent habit for an 18-year-old forward to get into. And again, MacKinnon recognizes the first defender to skate toward him takes a bad angle. The teams are skating four aside, so there’s plenty of ice for MacKinnon to jet into.
Now MacKinnon finds himself in a similar situation to the goal he scored above. He hits the line 2-on-2 with the rest of the Wild skaters trailing on the backcheck. He can make a play toward the goal, or hold the puck up and wait for reinforcements. To buy himself time though, he’ll attack the gap in the middle of the ice, forcing Minnesota to converge and lose its shape in the zone.
Here is where MacKinnon’s vision makes the play happen. There’s virtually nothing to be had here. Minnesota does a good job putting a body on a man down low, throwing someone right into MacKinnon’s lap and sealing off a drop pass to the point. But MacKinnon uses his patience to create space, drawing in the defender in the top of the frame down and then slipping a pass to the trailer.
Patience and vision
At an even 6’0, 180 pounds, MacKinnon isn’t a small player, but he isn’t going to use his size to impose his will. With that being said, he was pretty dominant possession player in the postseason, after not even finishing in the top 200 in relative corsi during the regular season. That number skyrocketed against Minnesota -- up to 9.1 percent (compared to 0 percent in the regular season).
Quick skaters obviously have that edge when it comes to puck possession, but speed by itself isn’t going to keep the puck on your stick. MacKinnon’s maneuverability and craftiness, combined with good patience and vision, keeps him from turning the puck over.
This goal comes from Colorado's Game 1 overtime win against the Wild, and while Tyson Barrie makes a great play to get this sequence started, MacKinnon is its backbone.
Again, Barrie starts this cycle out with a strong play at the blue line, before it gets worked down to MacKinnon in the corner.
The pass actually forces MacKinnon to extend his hands to accept it, and gives Jonas Brodin a chance to recover on the play. But MacKinnon changes the defender's angle by dipping his shoulders -- selling that he might return the puck to the area it just came from -- and buying himself enough space to continue down the wall.
Now it’s simply a numbers game. MacKinnon has a defender chasing him down and another in front with no angle to make a play. A third defender at the far post by Stastny is in good position, but he will be forced to step up when MacKinnon circles the net.
That last part of this play, which shouldn’t go unnoticed, is MacKinnon saucering the puck over to Stastny to avoid the Marco Scandella’s stick in the lane, and having it settle perfectly onto Stastny’s tape so he can quickly release it.
MacKinnon has plenty of good hockey ahead of him, and he has shown in the playoffs that in an increased role sans Matt Duchene, he has the maturity and ability to step up. MacKinnon will have all summer now to assess his own game and get hungrier after this first-round exit. He got a chance to sniff the playoffs, experience the league, and prove he belongs in it.
Now we really get to see how special Nate MacKinnon is.
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