For the Avalanche, it's been Rantanen to the rescue
The soft-spoken winger is driving play without his two usual linemates, putting together a 50-goal season and doing his part to keep Colorado in the hunt for a second straight title
While they were in Toronto on an off day Tuesday, the Colorado Avalanche players took a trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame to have another visit with the beautiful trophy they worked so hard to win last spring. It’s the dog days of the season and the Avalanche are third in their division, trying to catch second. Perhaps they needed a reminder that they’re still really good, because they haven’t defended their Stanley Cup this season so much as hung on for dear life.
The Avs have used 43 players this season, which ironically ties them for most in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs team they face Wednesday night. It has been a nightmarish season for injuries for the Avalanche. According to the website Man-Games Lost, the Avalanche are not in the top five of the league in man-games lost to injury, but they’ve got to be right there in the impact players lost to injury category. Or as Avs coach Jared Bednar remarked after a high-tempo workout in Toronto Tuesday afternoon:
“It’s the story of our season. We get (Josh) Manson back and we lose (Cale) Makar. We get (Bowen) Byram back and we lose Makar again. We lose Manson again. It just keeps coming for us.” And Bednar was just talking about the defence corps. He didn’t even mention that the team has gone all season without captain Gabriel Landeskog, that Nathan MacKinnon has missed 11 and Valeri Nichushkin has been limited to just 36 games. Or, that after he scored his 19th and 20th goals of the season against the Montreal Canadiens Monday night, Artturi Lehkonen broke his finger and will be out four-to-six weeks.
The one constant through it all, both in terms of health and production, has been Mikko Rantanen, who, in case you haven’t noticed, is putting together another monster season. He’s on pace for 50 goals and close to 100 points. We say, “in case you haven’t noticed,” because that often happens with Rantanen, who regularly flies under the radar outside of Denver. That’s fairly easy when MacKinnon is scoring highlight-reel goals and Makar is regularly making jaw dropping plays with the puck. Meanwhile, Rantanen is just doing his job, holding the Avalanche together during the worst of the injuries. “I’m pretty sure he scored every single one of our goals in December,” Makar said. Of course, he jests. The Avs scored 34 goals in December and Rantanen had 11 of them.
The fact that Rantanen doesn’t get the league-wide accolades that some of his teammates do does not faze him one bit. It’s a Finnish thing. As proud and fiery as they are on the ice, most Finnish players are happy to simply go about their business without any fuss or fanfare while not being terribly impressed with themselves. “It’s part of our culture, I think,” Rantanen said. “We’re a little shy as human beings. Finnish people, we don’t make a lot of noise about ourselves. I’m not saying other countries make too much noise about themselves, I’m just saying we’re a little bit different. We’re very humble. Sometimes too humble.”
He knows the organization values him, because until MacKinnon’s contract extension kicks next season, Rantanen has the team’s highest cap hit at $9.25 million a season. It's kind of hard for Rantanen to not stand out, though. He’s 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds with elite-level skill and vision. “He can play with guys on his back,” Bednar said. The coach didn’t clarify whether he meant those players on Rantanen’s back were opponents or teammates, but he didn’t have to. There have been times this season when it’s been both.
When the Avalanche impact players were falling earlier in the season, Rantanen took it upon himself to pick up his game. And he’s done that in a big way. According to the Situational Stats that I keep that measure impact scoring, Rantanen has scored the first goal of the game 10 times this season. He’s also scored 17 times to put the Avalanche ahead in the game and has 11 goals (including one shootout winner) that have put Colorado ahead in the game to stay. That’s precisely the same stat line as David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins, who is getting a lot of love for second-place in Hart Trophy voting behind Connor McDavid. Dylan Larkin is the only player in the NHL who has as many first goals as Rantanen and Pastrnak. McDavid (with 19) and Mika Zibanejad (18) are the only players who have more goals than Pastrnak that put their team ahead in a game. And Elias Pettersson (with 12, including three shootout winners) is the only player who has more goals in the NHL that put his team ahead to stay.
He hasn’t done it by himself, but Rantanen has done a lot of it without his usual running mates in MacKinnon and Landeskog. “That’s the amazing thing for me,” Bednar said. “They were always really good together and we relied on them to play together for the better part of their careers and now they’re doing it apart. MacKinnon is having as good a year as he’s ever had without Mikko and Mikko is doing the same thing with (J.T.) Compher. I like it because it gives us balance. We’ve put them back together here recently, but at least it gives us some options going into the playoffs.”
Bednar said there is no clarity on when, or if, Landeskog is going to be available this season. So The Mikko Rantanen Show will likely have to continue, despite the fact it might not get the rave reviews of The Nathan MacKinnon Hour or Fireside Chats with Cale Makar. The Avalanche will need it. And even if Rantanen doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, his teammates know what he brings. “He’s been such a horse all year,” MacKinnon said. “Definitely our best player. When we had all those guys out, he was getting hat tricks and scoring all of our goals. He’s having an amazing year.”
Remember what we said about Finns? Well, Rantanen gets the last word and, as usual, there aren’t too many of them when he talks about himself. “I was just happy to help out,” he said.
Nice piece on a guy who doesn't get a lot of ink but is one of the best in the league year-in, year-out.