Thoughts on 2024 and a Letter to the NHL

With one game remaining in ’24, let's look back... and ahead!

What a wild year it has been.

On Dec. 31, 2023, the Avalanche dispatched the Sharks, 3-1, at Ball Arena to close out the calendar with a win. Who would've thought that less than a year later San Jose’s backup goalie that night would not only be a member of Colorado’s team, but also with a five-year extension in hand. And that the Avs’ winning goalie that night with an impressive… checks stats… 10 saves (!) would be on the Sharks as a throw-in piece in a trade to acquire a third-liner who was still three months away from playing for Colorado.

That’s pretty wild.

The win that night pushed the Avs’ streak to 4-0-1 at the time. Nathan MacKinnon had two assists to extend his season-opening home point streak to 19 games (15-25-40). So for as much as the goalies change, the powerhouse play of The Dogg remains the same. 

Through the final game of December 2023, Mack had a 19-39-58 scoring line in 37 outings. With one game left this December, MacKinnon leads the NHL in scoring with 60 points with 14 goals and a league-leading 46 assists. As good as we thought the Nova Scotian was last year when he set franchise marks for scoring and was named MVP by both the media and the players, he’s been better this season.

In 2024, MacKinnon played in 93 games between regular season and playoffs. In that time, he scored 50 goals, had 106 assists and 156 points. He was a plus-34 and had 10 game winners. Oddly enough, he only had 10 power-play goals. Really shows you how good he is at 5v5 and how good 2024 was for him. And he still has one game left!