Nathan MacKinnon is bracing for a war with Vegas

Nathan MacKinnon has been the best skater on the planet for the better part of three years. He’s riding a six-game goal streak. His team just went 8-1 through the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Avalanche are the Presidents’ Trophy winners. They are, by every measure available, the best team in hockey. The Avs feel invincible and inevitable.

MacKinnon walked into Ball Arena on Tuesday and told everyone that’s not the case.

“I can’t see this being a short series,” MacKinnon said. “It’s going to be tough and we’re ready for a seven-gamer here.”

MacKinnon isn’t just doing a formidable foe lip service here. MacKinnon remembers, and so should you.

Five years ago, MacKinnon and the Avalanche won the first two games of a second-round series against these same Golden Knights and then lost four straight. After that collapse, MacKinnon said, “I’m going into my ninth year and I haven’t won sh–.”

After a long offseason, he led the Avs to hoist the Cup the following spring.

Vegas won a year later, in 2023. And now the two most recent Cup lifters from the West collide for the first time since that 2021 gut punch, and MacKinnon — for all his dominance, for all the steamrolling — is not putting the cart before the horse, despite the bookies in Vegas counting out their own hockey team.

While MacKinnon is on this side of the continental divide, the Knights have much more star power on their side since the two last met in the postseason.

They added Mitch Marner this offseason, developed Pavel Dorofeyev along the way, acquired Jack Eichel on their way to the 2023 title, traded for Tomas Hertl a year later and solidified their goal this year by signing Carter Hart.

Eichel is the biggest name, the former second overall selection, picked two years after MacKinnon went first. Eichel is tied for second in postseason scoring with 15 points in 12 games. MacKinnon has 13 in nine. They’re likely going to run into each other, a lot.

“He’s one of the best players in the league, going to be extremely challenging,” MacKinnon said. “He’s a two-way force out there. Big, strong guy. It’s going to be definitely a team effort to take away time and space, but he’s going to create. He’s just that good. Hopefully we can limit it.”

Hopefully we can limit it is something you say about a force of nature, like an Avalanche, not normally a hockey player.

Jared Bednar struck a similar chord when asked about John Tortorella, who took over a Vegas team with eight games left in the regular season and has them playing like they were supposed to all along.

“You got a team that’s won before and they’re hungry to win,” Bednar said. “Torts is a guy that knows exactly what it takes.”

The Knights have scored four or more goals in 11 of the 20 games he’s coached. Expected Avs starter Scott Wedgewood has only allowed that many past him one time since January, encompassing 26 games in net.

As inevitable as the Avs feel, they’re really trying to live in the moment, knowing the task at hand is tough. Gabriel Landeskog acknowledged the significance of returning to the conference final for the first time since the Avalanche won it all in 2022 — “Not easy making the playoffs, not easy winning a round, let alone two” — but it’s far from a celebration over a third-round berth.

“We got bigger goals and dreams,” Landeskog said.

And MacKinnon? He was asked about the mental toll of the postseason grind and practically laughed at the premise.

“It doesn’t feel like a grind at all to me,” he said. “The grind is more like January, February. Last game was probably the most fun we’ve all had playing hockey. This is what we get up for.”

On paper, this should be Colorado’s series to lose. But MacKinnon has been here before. He’s been the best player in a series against Vegas before. And he still ended up sitting at his locker talking about how he hadn’t won anything.

That’s why, on Tuesday, the guy who has been destroying everything in his path looked at the room full of reporters and told them the truth: this is hard and it’s going to take our best.

He knows best.

Game 1 is Wednesday at 6 p.m. MT at Ball Arena.

Gabriel Landeskog & Nathan MacKinnon at the podium.

Landeskog: “It’s a step… but we’ve got bigger goals than this.”

MacKinnon: “It’s fun, it doesn’t feel like a grind at all. We’re all having a lot of fun. The grind is more like January, February… this is what we get up for” pic.twitter.com/2Nmipkw5Zw

— Will Petersen (@PetersenWill) May 19, 2026

Related

Joe Sakic ‘confident’ Avs will reach deal with Cale Makar, ‘not really worried about it’Cale Makar voted NHL’s best defenseman a fifth year in a rowAvalanche name new head coach for AHL affiliate EaglesFive most important Avalanche games during the 2026-27 seasonNHL drops schedule for 2026-27 Avalanche seasonFirst Avalanche game of 2026-27 season announced, it’s in September