The next time Nathan MacKinnon puts an Avalanche sweater over his head; he'll be 30 years old. Time flies, doesn't it?
Colorado's superstar is no longer the fresh-faced 18-year-old who stepped into the NHL just months after being drafted first overall in 2013. He's now a grizzled veteran with nearly 900 NHL games under his belt. A grizzled veteran with one Stanley Cup ring, something he'd very much like to change.
There are some worries that Colorado's championship window might be closing, especially with MacKinnon about to leave his 20's. Turning 30 isn't the beginning of the end for NHL players like it used to be, though. Players these days take care of their bodies more than ever, and there might not be anyone in the league who is more prepared to thrive in his 30's than MacKinnon.
The end isn't anywhere in sight. If anything, he'll just keep getting better. That's what his longtime trainer Andy O'Brien, Chief Performance Officer, Cizzle Brands, NHL Health & Performance Expert, believes.
"The natural thing for us to do when we're looking at players is, once they get over the age of 30, we look at their previous season and we subtract 5%, 10%, whatever that might be, then you just predict this steady downward decline," O'Brien said.
"I just don't think Nate fits into that category. If there's ways for him to add something to his game or learn something or exploit some area of opportunity, he'll do it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he has his best years ahead of him."
O'Brien, trainer to various NHL stars like Sidney Crosby and Matthew Tkachuk and currently a consultant for the Florida Panthers, started working with MacKinnon when the Avalanche superstar was 15. He began working with Crosby around the same age nearly 25 years ago and has seen firsthand the shift in these athletes to start taking everything more seriously year-round. Whether it be diet, exercise, or recovery, players are locked-in all summer long to prepare for the next season.
MacKinnon has made it no secret he believes NHL players will have longer primes because of how they take care of themselves now. There may be no greater example of that than Crosby, who turns 38 this summer and is still averaging well over a point-per-game each year. MacKinnon isn't the only one that believes the average NHL career might start looking a little different moving forward.
"I think their primes are going to be longer and I think you'll see players playing into their 40's a lot more commonly," O'Brien said. "The science and the knowledge are increasing a lot with how to recover, how to stay young, how to fuel your body correctly. There's a lot of new technology and innovation that are helping players heal their bodies naturally."
Players are listening and paying attention to the science. They're also taking their own resources and investing in the most important thing anyone can invest in - their own health.
MacKinnon has a full-time soft-tissue therapist in Marcin Goszczynski who is always around the Avalanche in-season. O'Brien introduced MacKinnon to Goszczynski at one of his camps and as soon as MacKinnon how the therapist could help him on the recovery side, he knew he had to bring him into the fold. It's not just MacKinnon who takes advantage of having Goszczynski around the team full-time. His teammates do as well.
If you're been watching Gabriel Landeskog's show that has documented his recovery from knee cartilage transplant surgery, you've seen Goszczynski. Not every team has access to someone like that, but not every team has a MacKinnon.
"Nate also is an advocate for other players," O'Brien said. "Whether it's on nutrition, training, recovery, Nate's in many ways kind of like an assistant strength coach to the organization. He's always trying to encourage guys, push guys, and be a leader off the ice, and obviously with Marcin there, his teammates have been able to take advantage of him as well."
Staying healthy was an issue for MacKinnon at times earlier in his career but hasn't been the past three seasons. Goszczynski's presence might be why.
"I think just having Marcin there has made a big difference for him," O'Brien said. "Someone that can work with you every day and learn the right way to put a treatment together based on what's going on and then having that constant feedback. That's really how you learn. From the standpoint of recovery and health, that's really where Marcin has made a big difference."
Recovery has become essential to MacKinnon's success. Late in the season you'll often see him skip practices or morning skates, opting for treatment or perhaps an off-ice workout. After winning the Hart Trophy last summer, the 29-year-old told everyone prior to training camp in September that it was more of a recovery summer for him.
Now, a recovery summer for you and I might mean sitting on the couch a bit more binging some Netflix. That's not what a recovery summer looks like for an NHL superstar. MacKinnon was still working out in the summer to maintain everything; it just might have been shorter workouts or less workouts than perhaps he would do in a different summer.
There was just more of an emphasis on recovery.
"Many times, a recovery focused plan isn't less work, it's just different kind of work," O'Brien said. "You're still spending 3-4 hours a day on the recovery tools, whether it's saunas, cold tubs, massage, pool work. There's a variety of different types of things you can do to enhance recovery. It's just focusing the plan a little bit more about that. It doesn't necessarily mean more time off."
And when MacKinnon goes to work, he really goes to work. That's why O'Brien believes there shouldn't be any concerns in regard to a potential decline with MacKinnon as he enters his 30's.
If he sets his mind to something, he's going to accomplish it.
"There's no shortage of intensity with Nate, that's for sure," O'Brien said. "He trains hard. He trains with a purpose. He doesn't drag his feet through anything. Anything he does, he does at 100% to the best of his ability."
What I'm hearing
-- MacKinnon's post-game workouts are well documented. They aren't short and they take place whether the Avs are at home or on the road, which prompted Avalanche vice president of media and player relations Brendan McNicholas to joke earlier this season that no NHL team arrives in road cities after games later than Colorado.
It's not just MacKinnon who works out after games, though. It's everyone. Players often ride the bike and lift weights after playing an entire game. I asked O'Brien to explain the science behind that to me.
"A workout in the summer takes 75-90 minutes. That's a little too much to do in season because you're playing games almost every other day. It's just a little bit too taxing," O'Brien said. "The alternative is to workout occasionally. When I came into the NHL in 2005, that's how we did it. We would pick these times when we had three or four days between a game and throw a workout in, but it would be very hard on the players bodies because they may have gone three weeks without training. Then you throw one in and it's actually very taxing to do one. The way it works now in the NHL is the off-ice training is done in micro doses. You essentially have these 15-20 minute lifts and some players are doing that every day. Sometimes it's at the morning skate and then a little bit before the game and then a little bit after the game."
-- Colorado hired Alexi Pianosi to be their head strength and conditioning coach last summer. Pianosi previously worked with the Pittsburgh Penguins and is a protégé of O'Brien's, so MacKinnon was very familiar with him.
"(Pianosi) was highly involved in Nate's development," O'Brien said. "He was overseeing Nate's workouts that I would write for him when Nate was a young player."
What I'm seeing
-- Very real possibility we get a rematch of last year's Stanley Cup Final between Florida and Edmonton. If not, we might also get the Mikko Rantanen Bowl between Carolina and Dallas.
-- Not quite sure why Rick Tocchet is so highly coveted as an NHL head coach. He's missed the playoffs in seven of his nine seasons behind the bench, and I think it's pretty well proven that last year in Vancouver was a bit of a fluke thanks to some unsustainable shooting and save percentages. Maybe the fourth time is the charm for him, but that Philadelphia team seems a ways away from competing.
What I'm thinking
-- TNT's broadcasts are so much better than ESPN's that it's not even funny. Everything about TNT's intermission shows feels natural, while it feels like ESPN is trying to force everything. Mark Messier was a great player but listening to his analysis can be painful.
-- The website Daily Faceoff uses AFP Analytics to predict contracts for this summer's unrestricted free agents. Some of them are absurd (four years at almost $6 million a year for Jonathan Drouin is a lot) while some seem to be just head scratchers. I know Sam Bennett doesn't put up big numbers, but I have a feeling teams will be breaking down his door to offer him more than six years at $6.4 million per year if he hits free agency. The Avalanche would certainly be one of them.
