One Thousand and One MacKinnon Tales

There is no player in this league better than Nathan Raymond MacKinnon.

The Colorado Avalanche completed a six-game homestand on Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks, and we were looking to make it a perfect six-for-six. Elsewhere, Nathan MacKinnon was looking to reach 1000 career points, only needing just one point to get there. Only 10 active players have reached that number, and MacKinnon was looking to become #11. Also, welcome back, Erik Johnson, as "The Condor" was in the lineup for this game, his first game of his second stint with the Avs.

In net, it was Scott Wedgewood vs Spencer Knight, and get this. In just 10 seconds, the Avs were on the power play, and even crazier, it was Connor Bedard going into the box. Power Play was killed off, but still, that's just wild. Anyway, the Avs were pressing, and Martin Necas scored. There it was. MacKinnon had the primary assist, marking Point #1000 for #29!

Or so we thought.

The Blackhawks challenged for offsides. It looked onside from angles, yet the play was ruled offsides. No goal. Seriously, the refs despise MacKinnon. So the game remained scoreless, and it would be no score after 20. The second period was so anger inducing. They called so much on us and let the Blackhawks get away with murder. They were even awarded a 5-on-3 for nearly two minutes due to a load of crap. Avs killed off all of it. Blackhawks got yet another PP later, but it was evened up later and turned an abbreviated PP. Despite the insanity, the game remained scoreless after 40 minutes. MacKinnon really pressed for that thousandth point, but after all of that, he had 20 minutes to get it in this game.

It would happen very, very quickly.

In only 31 seconds into the third period, MacKinnon passed to Devon Toews, whose shot was deflected in by Artturi Lehkonen. 1-0 Avs, but more importantly, there it is! ONE THOUSAND POINTS!!! Not shocked that #1000 came via an assist, because he's been racking up a lot of helpers this season; definitely on pace to get 100 assists this season. The entire team huddled up to celebrate Mack's 1000th career point, which is also his 101st of this season. Less than three minutes later, Necas got the goal that was denied him earlier, with the lone assist coming from MacKinnon, marking career point #1001. It was pretty much all over but the shouting at that point, as Wedgewood was a brick wall. Knight was pulled for the extra attacker, but that allowed Joel Kiviranta to get the empty netter.

A few fun facts about Mack's 1000th point. He became the third in the team's overall history to reach 1000 points, joining Peter Stastny and Joe Sakic on that short list. MacKinnon is the 100th player to reach 1000 points, and the 11th active player to do so. He's also the first player from his draft class (2013) to reach 1000 points; the Florida Panthers' Aleksandar Barkov is a distant second with 771 career points. The absolute best player in the league right now, and it's not even close.

As for the Avs overall, we did it. I said that this homestand is a perfect opportunity to pick up 12 points, and we did it. Six straight wins, 12 maximum points, and our hold on the third position in the Central Division is getting stronger. Next up, the Avs will head to Minnesota in the second half of this back-to-back, and then it's off to Calgary on Friday. However, the next big home came comes on Sunday: a nationally televised early game against the Dallas Stars--and our old boy Mikko Rantanen.

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