It was a grand night at Ball Arena.
Nathan MacKinnon became the 100th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career regular-season points Monday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. It happened 31 seconds into the third period. MacKinnon left the puck for Devon Toews at the right point, and Artturi Lehkonen deflected it past Chicago goalie Spencer Knight.
MacKinnon is the third player to score 1,000 points for the Colorado Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise, joining Joe Sakic and Peter Stastny. He’s the first to do it entirely since the club moved to Denver 30 years ago.
“It just speaks to how dominant he is, and that dominance is not by accident,” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland said. “He’s obviously highly skilled, but he’s also highly, highly motivated. He deserves all the accolades that he has coming to him, both now and down the road.”
It looked like MacKinnon reached the milestone just 7:31 into the first period. He set up Martin Necas for a goal, and the entire team poured off the bench to celebrate. But after the celebration, the Blackhawks challenged for offsides, and after a lengthy review the goal was waived off.
After being the No. 1 pick in the 2013 NHL draft and winning the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, the march to 1,000 might have seemed inevitable, but the next three seasons of MacKinnon’s career did not progress the way he wanted. Starting with the 2017-18 season, MacKinnon has been firmly among the best players in the world.
He has finished in the top six of the MVP voting six times in the past seven seasons, culminating with his first Hart Trophy last year. MacKinnon is also one of the top contenders this season. He leads the NHL in points and could add his first Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer.
MacKinnon reached 100 points in a season for the first time in 2022-23, but he produced at a 100-point pace for three seasons before that and was stopped short by injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nothing has been able to stop him over the past two seasons. He set a franchise record with 140 points during his MVP campaign a year ago. He has a chance to record the second-best season since the franchise moved to Denver, which would be a second year with more points than Sakic or Peter Forsberg ever had.
MacKinnon is the 11th active player to reach 1,000, and by doing so in 856 games he is the fourth fastest, behind only Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
“I remember the first day seeing it (up close),” said MacFarland, who joined the organization in 2015. “To see him up close, how hard he works, how fast he is. It’s like a Mack truck moving at 75 miles per hour down the highway.
“It’s awe. You’re in awe at what he can do when you watch him close. We’re really fortunate to have him.”
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