MacKinnon no longer being overlooked with Avalanche

On a rainy day in Nova Scotia in the summer of 2015, patrons placing orders at a Tim Hortons drive-thru were offered the chance to win a free coffee if they could answer the following question: "Name a hockey player from the east coast?"

Unknown to them, Sidney Crosby and fellow Cole Harbour native Nathan MacKinnon were working the drive-thru as part of a company promotion. It was Crosby, in fact, asking them the question over the speaker.
The first four customers with correct responses all said the same thing: Sidney Crosby.
"What's with all these Sidney Crosby answers? What's going on here?" MacKinnon said.

When the fifth Crosby answer was given, a female customer was asked which other NHL player also came from Cole Harbour.
"Oh, the guy who just got drafted a year ago. His last name starts with an M."
"Yes! Thank you so much," MacKinnon told the customer over the speaker.
Almost three years later, MacKinnon, now 22, laughs over the exchange.
"Hanging around Sid, it's easy to get overlooked," he said.
Not so much anymore.
Heading into the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVA Sports), the Colorado Avalanche forward is playing some of the best hockey of his NHL career and being mentioned as a potential Hart Trophy candidate.
Perhaps the least surprised person when it comes to MacKinnon's play Crosby.
Crosby, 30, has known for years how high MacKinnon's ceiling was. The two are close friends. They come from the same town and attended the same school, Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault, Minnesota.

They each were drafted No. 1, Crosby by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2005 NHL Draft, MacKinnon by the Avalanche in the 2013 NHL Draft.
Every offseason, they work out together with Andy O'Brien, the Penguins director of sports science and performance.
"He's putting up some impressive numbers this year," Crosby said. "He's really been a big part of their team's success. He deserves it. He's worked hard and he's produced. He's been a dominant player since the start of the season.
"For someone who sees him on a daily basis, in the summer, and sees how hard he works, I think you're happy for guys that put that much into it and see the reward."
MacKinnon enters All-Star Weekend with 60 points (24 goals, 36 assists), three behind Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov for the NHL lead.
"He's a competitive guy," Crosby said of MacKinnon. "You don't get to the level that he has and win the things that he has without being competitive.
"He won a Memorial Cup. He won [NHL] Rookie of the Year [in 2014]. He's a world-class player. And this year he's been really consistent and his team's doing really well. That's probably why we hear and see about it more."

The Avalanche, who finished last in the NHL in 2016-17 with 48 points, have 57 this season and enter the All-Star break in the second wild card spot into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
A big reason for that has been MacKinnon.
Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic said though no one in the NHL works harder than Crosby, he sees the same diligent traits in MacKinnon.
"When you spend as much time as Nathan does with [Crosby], of course some of that is going to rub off," Sakic said. "But Nathan is a determined kid on his own. He's wants to be the best and he's working hard to be exactly that."
You won't find MacKinnon boasting about his accomplishments. That's just not his way, another characteristic he and Crosby have in common.
"The thing about Sid is that he never wants to talk about himself or his exploits," MacKinnon said. "If anything like that comes up, he'll just change the subject quickly. That's just who he is."

MacKinnon and the Avalanche haven't played a postseason game since his rookie season of 2013-14. That year, he scored 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in seven games in a Wester Conference First Round loss to the Minnesota Wild.
"My first year when we made the playoffs was amazing," he said. "The white towels were going, it was great.
"Some of the older guys were saying that back in the early 2000s, Denver was the hardest place to play. Opposing teams didn't want to come to Denver to play us. That's the way it was. It would be amazing to get it back to that state."
MacKinnon knows the excitement that comes with a Stanley Cup celebration, having attended the two held by Crosby the past two offseasons. In the future, he hopes it will be his turn to invite Crosby to a Stanley Cup parade.
"Yeah, I think I'd like to have one of my own," MacKinnon said. "Maybe he can come to one of mine one day."