DENVER (KDVR) — The Colorado Avalanche began the 2024-25 season slow out of the gate by their standards, going 0-4 at the start. Seeing a perennial Stanley Cup contender go blank for so long had many people ready to hit the panic button.
Although they weren’t getting the results they wanted, the Avs did have some players who started the season on a tear. The team rallied behind those players and turned the tide, now sitting in fourth place in the west and above .500 on the season.
Two players who led the way for the Avs, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, did so in a way that will see their names etched in the history books.
Nathan MacKinnon
Any time a player is able to match a record by Wayne Gretzky, they are doing something right. One player doing such things is MacKinnon. MacKinnon became the only other player in NHL history to start multiple seasons with at least one point in each of the first 13 games, according to an Avs post on X.
Although not record-breaking, MacKinnon has started the season so hot he should be melting the ice below him. After breaking the franchise record for most points in a season on the way to securing the Hart trophy last year, MacKinnon has somehow started this season in even better form.
Through the Avs’ 17 games played so far, MacKinnon leads the NHL in total points, 33, and his 26 assists also lead the NHL with the next highest player only having 20. If he continues at this same pace he would finish the year with 153 points. For reference, he broke the franchise record and won the Hart Trophy with 140 points last season.
Cale Makar
Makar has claimed his own piece of history at the start of this season, as well. Makar joined MacKinnon with a 13-point streak, which made him the second defenseman in history to start a season with at least a 10-point streak, according to the NHL. He joins the legendary, Bobby Orr, who started a season with a 15-point streak.
Makar is currently tied for the third-most points in the NHL this season alongside other teammate Mikko Rantanen, who leads the NHL in scoring. If Makar continues to hover around this mark for the rest of the season while adding in a few extra points here and there, he could finish the season as the total points leader. This would secure him the Art Ross Trophy, given to the NHL points leader, and would make him the first defenseman to win the award since Orr, who claimed the award back in 1975.
The power of friendship
Each player’s 13-point streak is impressive, but when you combine their feats, the two put themselves in elite company together. MacKinnon and Makar became the third pair of teammates in history to begin the season on a simultaneous streak of at least 13 points, according to the NHL.
The dynamic duo joins Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito who went on a 15-point streak with the Boston Bruins in the 1973-74 season and Dimitri Kvartalnov and Joe Juneau, two other Bruins teammates who went on a 14-point streak in the 1992-93 season.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
