Not many players can say they’ve been compared to Sidney Crosby. Even fewer can say they’ve been compared to Crosby before even making their NHL debut, yet Nathan MacKinnon began being compared to Crosby at the age of thirteen. MacKinnon, eight years younger than Crosby, grew up in the same town, Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, and left Cole Harbour, at the age of fourteen, for the same boarding school as Crosby, Shattuck St. Mary’s, in Faribault, Minnesota. From there, MacKinnon followed in Crosby’s footsteps by playing in the Quebec Major Junior League and then was drafted first overall in 2013 draft by the Colorado Avalanche. With the comparison mounting and the pressure growing, MacKinnon quickly went from the next Crosby to a potential bust. In MacKinnon’s fourth year in the NHL, 2016-2017, MacKinnon tallied a mere 53 points. Consequently, what was even more concerning was out of those 53 points, MacKinnon only found the back of the net 16 times. The future was not looking too bright for MacKinnon nor the Avalanche.

Fortunately for Colorado, MacKinnon made a major leap in the 2017-2018 season that has since led to him to cementing himself as a top five player in the NHL. In 2017-2018, MacKinnon recorded 97 points, almost double the amount from the year before, and finished fifth in the league. MacKinnon’s major leap can be seen by analyzing the two graphs pictured below.

In the first image, it is clarified that not every player ranked in total points is represented. Brett Burns finished the season with 76 points, which placed him ninth. MacKinnon finished with 53, where he finished 80th. When taking that into consideration and then analyzing the second image, viewers can clearly see how MacKinnon broke onto the scene in 2017. The red bar, used to represent MacKinnon’s total points, went from 80th to 5th in just one year. Not only did MacKinnon finish fifth in 2017, but he was five points away from finishing second. MacKinnon finished with 97 points, while Claude Giroux finished with 102. When viewing the jump in the red bar, it can be used to explain how MacKinnon went from someone not even in the picture, a bust, to a player that is now in the same conversation as some of the top players in the league. MacKinnon attributed his breakout season, not to his skillset, but to his mindset. While the skillset had always been there, an underrated component of the game had been paralyzing him from becoming a star. This past summer, MacKinnon sat down with the Spittin’ Chiclets crew and during the podcast, spoke of his breakout year and the change in his mindset. In speaking of his 2016-2017 season, MacKinnon said, “I put a ton of pressure on myself. I’m a very competitive guy… and I’m watching guys like Matthews and McDavid dominate, uh Marner, you know, just so many young amazing players in the league. Kucherov, I mean, I played juniors against Kucherov. I was better than him, then in junior, I thought, and then I’m watching all these guys put up 100 points and I’m just it, it hurt. It’s like what is wrong with me?” MacKinnon quickly realized that it’s a dangerous game to start living your life based on your on-ice performance. MacKinnon even went as far to say that because of his on ice struggles he began to think of himself as a person poorly. MacKinnon needed to make a change and as a result, he decided to take his commitment to another level. MacKinnon took his commitment to another level by hiring a sports psychologist. While that may not sound like much to many, MacKinnon admitted he needed it. MacKinnon knew as a person and a player, he had a lot of emotion and sometimes that emotion would affect him negatively. MacKinnon was losing confidence each game and year and rather than thinking of the player he could become, he was thinking of the player he wasn’t. In 2017, his breakout season, through the help of his sports psychologist, MacKinnon made sure to stay in the moment and when speaking of it, he said, “So I just kinda just stuck with what we [his sports psychologist and him] were talking about and just tried to stay present and achieve my process goals.” By staying present MacKinnon was able to allow himself to return to his true game, record 97 points in 2017, and deem himself not a bust to the entire hockey community.

Work Cited

Admiral, Rear, Whitney, Ryan and Bissonnette, Paul. Spittin’ Chiclets. Episode 196. Barstool Sports. July 18th, 2019.