Relentless MacKinnon driving Colorado’s speed game

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In the Tampa Bay Lightning’s quest for a three-peat and a place in hockey lore, perhaps their biggest challenge yet is this Colorado Avalanche team, loaded with talent and capable of playing at a pace that’s unrivaled in today’s National Hockey League.

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final was everything you could ask for, and then some. The Lightning clawed back – they always seem to claw back, don’t they? – from a multi-goal deficit to push the opener into the overtime frame. But just a minute into the extra period, Valeri Nichushkin and Andre Burakovsky teamed up for a dazzling game-winner, giving Colorado an early series lead.

After the game, Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper acknowledged the better team had won. Colorado outshot Tampa Bay 38-23 (attempts were 79-60 across all situations), and those shot totals were reflective of two components: the speed at which Colorado was playing with through the neutral zone, and the rate at which they were forcing defensive zone miscues from Lightning skaters.

Those components are frequently related. Dominate the transition game through speed and you will generate heaps of scoring chances off the rush. Play with enough speed pinned down in the offensive zone and you will invariably force poor decision making and loose passing. It seems like the majority of Colorado’s lineup, not just the top of it, can do that in spades.

Then there is Nathan MacKinnon.

If your team goes as your best players go, it’s not hard to understand why Colorado plays at such a blistering pace. This entire postseason – and long before it, quite frankly – MacKinnon has established himself as one of the league’s deadliest attackers, an assassin on the rush and a wondrous playmaker with the puck