Road Warriors

There they are, folks. Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. These are my two favorite players currently in the NHL. It's amazing that I've seen each of their careers since Day One. When Sid started, MacKinnon idolized him, especially since they came from that same place: Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. Sid was drafted back in 2005 by the Penguins, while the Avs would draft MacKinnon #1 overall eight years later.

Both have made legacies for themselves, and in the case of Sidney Crosby, he's now at Year Twenty of what has been a very iconic career. He's not done yet, but he's kinda almost done. A two year extension will see him play through the end of the 2026-27 season, meaning that this matchup between the Avalanche and Penguins is the first of possibly the final six head-to-head matchups between these two legends.

As for the Avs, well, we did it. We traded Alexandar Georgiev. Georgie was dealt to the San Jose Sharks along with Nikolai Kovalenko and two draft picks (a conditional fifth in 2025 and a second in 2026), and in return, we received Givani Smith, a fifth-round pick in the 2027 draft, and goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, who was coming off a 50-save performance in a loss to the Florida Panthers. Georgiev's play had come under scrutiny since last year, yet he led the league in wins in each of his two full seasons with the Avs. In his last start with Colorado, Georgiev shut down the Red Wings, only giving up one goal in the victory.

So we have Blackwood, Wedgewood, and we have Miles Wood. We need to stay away from termites and Woody Woodpecker.

Anyway, it was Scott Wedgewood in net against Tristan Jarry in this trip to Pittsburgh, and the first power play went to the Avs after our old boy, Ryan Graves, committed a high-sticking infraction. That ended up being killed off, but later on, Nathan MacKinnon broke away and put it in to make it 1-0, and the assists came from Mikko Rantanen and Devon Toews. There wasn't much shooting at first, but the Avs continued pressing after that goal and ended up getting another. Rantanen made it 2-0, and Cale Makar assisted.

Avs were up 2-0 after 20 minutes, but the second period saw the Penguins on the PP--it was killed off. Later on, Rantanen struck again, and the assists came from MacKinnon and Calvin de Haan. It was 3-0 for Colorado, but less than two minutes later, Cody Glass put Pittsburgh on the board. The assists came from longtime stalwarts Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. What followed was an array of Pittsburgh penalties, but the power plays did not cash in for Colorado. Michael Bunting cashed in, though, with help from Erik Karlsson and Bryan Rust. So it was 3-2 for the Avs after 40 minutes. This game was getting close.

It wouldn't for long.

Valeri Nichushkin made it 4-2 at 3:23 into the third, and MacKinnon had the lone assist. 4-2 was still manageable, but 5-2 would not be, and that was the score after Artturi Lehkonen netted his eighth of the season. The assists? You guessed it: Rantanen and MacKinnon. In desperation, Pittsburgh pulled the goalie with over five minutes left, as they needed three goals in that span. MacKinnon received the puck, but in true MacKinnon fashion, he passed the puck to Rantanen, and with that, the Moose completed his third hat trick this season... and it's only December. As for Crosby, he slammed his stick on the crossbar after that goal, it pretty much comes with being the captain of a sinking ship.

The Moose got loose yet again! Both Rantanen and MacKinnon had five point nights in Pittsburgh, but in the former's case, it included a Hat Trick--his third of the season. Rantanen is one shy of the overall franchise record for Hat Tricks in a season, which is shared by Miroslav Frycer and Peter Stastny, who each had four. Overall, Rantanen has 18 goals, which ties him with Kirill Kaprizov for third overall. Only Leon Draisaitl and Sam Reinhart have more goals this season. In addition, Rantanen has 42 points overall, trailing his teammate, Nathan MacKinnon, for the league lead. So there's a good chance we could see two Avs battling for the Ross this year? Could those same two Avs be battling for the Hart as well? We shall see.

Overall, this was a successful road trip, winning four of the five games, and the Central Division is becoming nice and tight. Again, it's only December. Things can get even better for the Avs for sure! Next up, the Avs finally return home on Thursday against the Utah Hockey Club, and on Saturday, it's another home game against the still sputtering Nashville Predators.

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