Nathan MacKinnon scored twice and put eight shots on goal as the Colorado Avalanche opened the season with an 8-4 win over Los Angeles on Wednesday. None of that was what people were talking about afterwards.
With just over six minutes left in the third period and Colorado leading 6-4, MacKinnon invited Brandt Clarke to fight. The Kings defenseman accepted. It went about as well for him as you’d expect against a player that much angrier than he was.
Asked afterwards what prompted it, MacKinnon kept the explanation short, and notably didn’t repeat what was actually said.
“It’s an intense game, and he didn’t say a great word to me, and I didn’t like the word, and yeah, we fought,” MacKinnon said, per Daily Faceoff.
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There was plenty building up to it. Earlier in the game Clarke had taken Cale Makar hard into the end boards, which MacKinnon didn’t appreciate. The two then traded slashes in front of the Kings net, Clarke answering a slash to the leg with a high stick before MacKinnon swung across both his shins and extended his arms in invitation.
This isn’t new territory between them either. In last season’s opener, Clarke cross-checked Artturi Lehkonen into the boards and MacKinnon went straight after him, picking up an interference penalty for his trouble.
How many fights has Nathan MacKinnon had?
For a player who has built a career on scoring rather than scrapping, the answer is barely any. Wednesday’s bout was his ninth in the NHL according to HockeyFights.com, across more than a decade in the league, and he finished last season with just 39 penalty minutes in 80 games.
His teammates seem happy to leave that side of things to him. Makar said afterwards that MacKinnon can turn into the Hulk when he’s angry, and that he wouldn’t want to fight him himself.
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MacKinnon, for his part, was reasonably complimentary about the man he’d just flattened.
“He plays hard. He gets under guys’ skin. He’s a really good defenseman,” MacKinnon said, per the Gazette. “But sometimes when you play like that, you have to fight sometimes.”
Both players took five-minute majors, which ended MacKinnon’s night. Colorado didn’t need him for the rest of it, having already scored four power-play goals, with Artturi Lehkonen and Brock Nelson also managing two apiece.
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