Talent was on display last night in Denver. The most offensively potent line in hockey put on a show and so did Sidney Crosby. The trio of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Gabriel Landeskog continue to abuse the opposition and stake their claim to being one of the very best lines in hockey, if not the best line in hockey. Sidney Crosby is on one of those streaks where he picks up the team and puts him on his back.
Nathan MacKinnon finished with four points and now has 41 points on the season. It is only one point behind his linemate Mikko Rantanen who leads the league. MacKinnon was the runner up for the Hart Trophy last year and he’s proving that the 2017-18 standard is here to stay. It’s great for the Colorado Avalanche because he is signed for another four years at 6.3M. Makes you wonder what the hell Pat Brisson was doing for his client. What a horrendous job.
Colorado’s first line is so overwhelming that you saw Kris Letang having some issue keeping up on a few sequences. That’s a true sign of an effective line. Letang may make mistakes with his choices at times, but keeping up physically is hardly ever an issue. He isn’t losing a step. He’s been incredibly consistent over the years besides 2013-14, the year he had a stroke.
I don’t subscribe to the theory that Kris Letang is having a bounce back season. He was really good last year, too. Just like he has been every year except the stroke year. There’s an obvious culprit for the perception of Letang bouncing back. His goalies stopped sucking when he was on the ice.
The better paid Pat Brisson client had a great night as well. That client was Sidney Crosby who had a natural hat trick. Sidney Crosby is having an excellent year even by his standards. We only have a 21 game sample at this point, but his 3.64 points per 60 is back in the neighborhood from his prime years. Take a look
Crosby has been on quite a run since returning from his upper body injury. He has nine points in his last nine games.
One thing I would have changed last night is the deployment of Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. I would have tried to load up another line to try and overwhelm the Avalanche when the MacKinnon line wasn’t on the ice. Kessel was with Brassard and they were a 20% possession combo on the night. It wasn’t working on this night. It doesn’t mean you can’t tinker with that in the future. It’s just tough when you are up against one of the most dominating lines of the year and some of your best offensive weapons were neutralized.
Overall it has been a successful stretch of games for the Penguins. They’ve earned seven out of the last ten points and almost came away with some last night. They will get the Flyers on Saturday at home.
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