Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin end warmups before every Colorado Avalanche game the same way.
MacKinnon sets up in the left circle. Drouin finds a spot on the right side of the ice, armed with a couple handfuls of pucks he’s gathered. Then they practice cross-ice passes to each other, with MacKinnon eventually shooting each towards the net on a one-timer.
The pair of old friends who have been reunited do this at the end of nearly every practice as well. They change the angle of the passes. Some have a little more sauce on them. Over and over — Drouin to MacKinnon for a one-timer, Drouin to MacKinnon, back to Drouin, back to MacKinnon for a one-timer, and so on.
In this remarkable season, for both players, there couldn’t be a more fitting way for MacKinnon to reach a major milestone than what transpired Sunday afternoon at Ball Arena. MacKinnon set a new Denver-based record for points in a season when he collected No. 120 to tie Joe Sakic from 28 years ago, No. 121 to establish a new mark and No. 122 to continue his chase of the overall franchise standard of 139, set by Peter Stastny 42 years ago.
MacKinnon tied the record by setting up Drouin for a one-timer. He broke the record from nearly the same spot, only this time it was Drouin who fed him.
“We talk about that weak side a lot. Great pass by him,” MacKinnon said. “He’s got amazing vision. He always has. Yeah, great pass.”
Drouin scored the game-winning goal in overtime, with assists from Cale Makar and MacKinnon. It was a three-point game for him as well, and Drouin is now four points shy of his career high.
When Drouin signed a one-year, bargain-bin contract with the Avs, everyone immediately pointed to the connection between him and MacKinnon. They’ve been friends for more than a decade, dating back to their days carpooling together with the Halifax Mooseheads.
Drouin has proven he doesn’t need MacKinnon to be a high-level NHL player, and he’s been one of the signings of the offseason. But, Avs coach Jared Bednar did put them back together Sunday while Colorado was trying to erase a four-goal deficit, and the dynamic duo made more magic together.
How many times have they practiced those one-timers together? It’s in the thousands, easily.
“Oh, a lot. Just come to one of our practices,” Bednar said. “They’re out early, they’re out late, they’re always working on those little touches and shots. It’s funny, we had trouble going through the seams too many times in the first period, and yet, we get two seam goals in the third.”
MacKinnon has now scored more points in one season in an Avalanche uniform than Sakic or Peter Forsberg, the two pantheon pillars of the franchise, ever did. After the game, MacKinnon deflected comparisons to an all-time great player, saying he doesn’t believe he’s as good right now as Sakic ever was.
That’s what he always does. It’s getting harder for anyone else to follow his lead, though.
“I mean, this guy’s a phenomenal player, right?” Bednar said of his Hart Trophy candidate. “But that’s pretty good company. When you’re talking about our boss (Sakic) that’s had such a phenomenal career, then you watch what Nate’s doing, and it just speaks to who Nate is as a player.”
Drouin, like MacKinnon, is of a certain age where most hockey-playing boys in Canada grew up idolizing one of two players — Sakic or Steve Yzerman. Asked if he was a Sakic guy growing up, Drouin said that Forsberg was actually his favorite.
Either way, MacKinnon is now walking among those legends. He just passed Sakic’s single-season mark. He’s also chasing Wayne Gretzky’s record for consecutive home games with a point, and this game left him just six shy.
“It’s crazy,” Drouin said. “Even if you look at that point streak, every time they show it and the names that are up there – Guy Lafleur, Wayne Gretzky, Sakic, Forsberg – all those guys. He’s having a hell of a season, but credit to him because he puts a lot of work in.”
This is the best season of MacKinnon’s career. It might earn him his first Art Ross or Hart Trophy.
It’s only MacKinnon’s second 100-plus point season, but he’s been close to this good for five years now. The only things keeping him from having stacked five seasons like this was a global pandemic that cut two years short and a couple of injuries in 2021-22.
He produced at a 110-point pace in all three of those years, then had 111 in 71 games last year. Now, he’s at 122 through 71 games, with 11 more to play.
MacKinnon avoids some of those comparisons because he feels like he hasn’t won enough championships to have earned them. This team looks good enough to win again, which would give him as many as Sakic and Forsberg won.
This has become a season for the ages for MacKinnon, but there’s plenty of evidence that he’s not anywhere close to being done as an elite player. And all of that work that he puts in, including those one-timers with Drouin, are a big reason why he’s going to be dealing with these comparisons a lot moving forward.
“No question,” Bednar said when asked if MacKinnon can reach Sakic’s status someday. “Both elite — different players, different eras. You’ve got to respect what Joe did as a player. I mean, it’s hard to even put it into words. And then if you look at what Nate’s doing, and if he just continues to do it, there’s no question he’s going to be seen as one of those guys, if he’s not already.”
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