Nathan MacKinnon: "I'm going into year 9 and haven't won s**t"

[Foppberg]

Thats the best thing you can hear from him.

He is beyond motivated

DAMN right. I expect him to be an utter beast next year.

 

[amnesiac]

MacKinnon, Grubauer for Price, Kotkaniemi and a 2nd

 

[swiftwin]

They just ran into a really good team. No shame in that. 30 teams won't win the cup this year. Just gotta pull yourself up by the bootstraps and try again next year.

 

[StreetHawk]

They just ran into a really good team. No shame in that. 30 teams won't win the cup this year. Just gotta pull yourself up by the bootstraps and try again next year.

No shame in losing to a good team. But, is the way they lost something that they can correct internally? That's what they need to figure out or whether they need to follow what TB did and pay a premium for guys to fill in what they don't have like in Coleman/Goodrow who came in at cheaper deals. Coleman cost them their 2019 first round pick in Foote along with the 1st they got from Van for Miller.

Do they need to find the equivalent of a Methot to E. Karlsson for Girard/Makar? What is that going to cost them in terms of assets or cap space and/or term?

Can the team get better at handling an aggressive forecheck? Can they tighten up defensively?

That's the analysis that Sakic needs to do.

 

[Lunatik]

Players and fans need to accept that winning the cup is harder than it has ever been and the margin between good teams and mediocre teams is actually quite slim.

We constantly hear mockery of not advancing past round 1 (hell even I partake in mocking the Leafs and Oilers), as if round 1 is some barometer. Now with 32 teams, only the top 25% will advance to round 2. compared to back in the day when we had 21*24 teams for a long time when almost 33-38% of teams of all teams passed round 1.

It's almost as hard to make the playoffs now as it was to reach the second round in the 1980s and 90s. Times have changed in hockey as the league has grown, but our fan expectations on teams winning hasn't.

Look at baseball for example, it's actually a big deal to make the playoffs and fans are proud of it. But statistically speaking it's just as hard to reach our 2nd round as it is to make the playoffs in baseball, so why do we treat it so differently? And that is without considering the NHL has moreparity than any other professional league, so it's that much harder in the NHL.

 

[LokiDog]

MacKinnon is still young even though he’s been around for a while now. The team is young and talented and doesn’t need a lot of adjustments. They could use a 2C who is actually dressed when the games matter.

I think they need a new coach. Bednar doesn’t have to do a lot for them to be a successful, high octane team in the regular season. In the playoffs he has shown that game management and adjustments aren’t adequate. The team has poor puck management and takes too many risks because they play the same all the time. 95% of the time, the roster is good enough that that works, but they don’t want to go 95% of the way. Bednar isn’t the guy to get 100% of the way.

Sure, the players can individually be responsible for not making the adjustments or for lacking killer instinct, but this group is WAY too good to blow it up or call it a failure. They could bring in a couple of high character role guys and that could be beneficial, but they need a coach who can teach them how to lockdown a lead, switch to a game management style and stop trying to push the high octane, high risk style. They need to have a better fundamental, shutdown game to fall back on in the playoffs, especially with a lead. I don’t think Bednar can implement it.

If Erik Johnson was healthy and Kadri wasn’t a bozo, those are both big upgrades on center depth and veteran D man over a Timmins/Graves/Nemeth. Like I said, a couple of high character depth guys could help. Calvert over Sherwood would have helped.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Come to TB Nate, we'll LTIR someone to get you in.

Vasilevskiy?

 

[Habano]

Come to TB Nate, we'll LTIR someone to get you in.

Love this!

 

[Talonted]

lol if mcDavid or Matthews said this the boards would be filled with stupid trade proposals and hot takes about them wanting out. But golden child Mackinnon gets people calling it "fire" and "motivation" to win in Colorado.

100% true. Although all it would take is a sigh from McDavid in an interview for people to fire up the trade talk lol

 

[TopShelfWaterBottle]

I had Taylor hall to avalanche in the off-season last year, the trade deadline and now hopefully Colorado this off-season

 

[HabsQC]

Great D, yet unexperienced

 

[Shinjuku Calling]

Doesn't translate to on ice play though.

 

[McShogun99]

Every year Sakic has found a way to improve the team and he’ll do the same this off season.

 

[yeaher]

He's 25

 

[eXile3]

Yzerman was in his 30s before he got his first. It's not like Colorado hasn't surrounded him with tremendous talent. It's just a really competitive league and there is a lot of parity among the top teams.

 

[Rapsfan]

How long do NHL primes last? I mean he's still 26 and he has 9 years of experience. In the NBA you usually start slightly later due to draft rules but primes only go til 32 on average. MLB you start at like 22 but primes go until 34.

 

[Enga Olly]

Plenty of great players that never won the cup. It's 50/50 whether MacKinnon will be another one of those great players never to win a cup. Life is often unfair. Make friends with Nick Kypreos - he'll let you touch his ring.

 

[JJ68]

I'd feel bad for him but the Leafs have taken away my ability to feel

That's my boah