A possible injury has slowed Nathan Mackinnon during these Olympics, but it didn't stop him willing Team Canada into Sunday's gold-medal game with his winning goal against Finland on Friday.ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images
Nathan MacKinnon is a man of few words. But he didn’t want to see Sidney Crosby go out this way, on the sidelines of the Olympics.
The Canadian forward, who grew up maybe a kilometre or two from Crosby in Cole Harbour, N.S., and idolized him growing up, took matters into his own hands on Friday.
Facing elimination against Finland in the Olympic semi-final, and with Crosby sitting out with an apparent knee injury, MacKinnon drilled the winning goal for Team Canada in the dying seconds against Finland.
The one-time slap shot, on a slick pass from Connor McDavid, capped a comeback win for Canada, which had trailed by a goal late in the game, and sent it into Sunday’s gold-medal final against the United States.
The gold medal has always been the objective. But giving Crosby one more shot to get back on the ice after he was buckled by Radko Gudas in Canada’s quarter-final win over Czechia was something else. An added bonus.
“Cherry on top,” MacKinnon said.
Off the ice, MacKinnon doesn’t get very emotional. He saves it for the games, where Canada head coach Jon Cooper calls him, “a bull in a china shop,” and his teammates marvel at how intense he is.
But while MacKinnon said he didn’t need extra motivation to win Friday, or to push Canada closer to its stated dream, he did acknowledge it was important that Crosby had a chance to return.
It’s unknown if that will happen. Cooper suggested the captain’s status won’t be known until game day.
Crosby’s status for gold-medal game still up in the air
But if the Olympics are a series of tasks – Cooper has called the tournament a mission to win six games – then keeping things alive for Crosby checks another box for MacKinnon and his teammates.
“We want to show up for him and give him another opportunity,” said Brad Marchand, who grew up near Crosby in neighbouring Dartmouth.
“You want to do it for every single guy in that room and every person that helped you get to this point and for the entirety of Canada. But yeah, obviously with what’s going on with Sid, he’s definitely a big rallying point.”
That MacKinnon was the guy who secured the win for Canada in the semi-final came as no surprise to his teammates. Each of them are top players on their NHL squads, but MacKinnon is one of the biggest competitors some of them say they have ever seen.
Tom Wilson, a veteran power forward and Stanley Cup winner with the Washington Capitals, said he’s learned a thing or two from watching MacKinnon at these Olympics.
“When the guy just wants to win more than anything, he wants to push himself to be the best version of himself every single minute of every day, you can learn a lot,” Wilson said.
That goes for McDavid and Crosby too.
“They’re just constantly working. Guys don’t see it behind the scenes, they work so, so, so hard, and they want this so bad for their country,” Wilson said.
MacKinnon celebrates with Macklin Celebrini and Sam Reinhart after scoring.Mike Segar/Reuters
Marchand trains with Crosby and MacKinnon in the Halifax area during the summer. He said the late-game heroics from MacKinnon are on-brand.
“That’s what he does. He’s one of the most intense people I’ve ever met. Just his dedication to the game and to being the best,” Marchand said.
“It’s all built for moments like this when the pressure is the highest, when the moments are the biggest. He wants to be the guy to be the difference maker.”
That he was, even though MacKinnon appears to be battling some sort of injury. He took a high hit in Canada’s preliminary-round game against France, as well as a collision involving his knee, and the effects may be lingering.
Canada’s players and their coach aren’t letting on, but MacKinnon’s trademark skating, where he charges through the neutral zone as one of the fastest players in the league, seemed curtailed against Finland.
But playing on a line with two offensively gifted stars in McDavid and 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini has meant MacKinnon doesn’t have to drive the line entirely himself. On Canada’s potent power play, with McDavid directing traffic, MacKinnon was allowed to drift almost unnoticed into open ice and load up a one-timer.
It wasn’t the kind of game Canada planned to play, scrambling to keep its Olympic hopes alive, but Cooper said the team was undaunted even as the clock ticked down and the pressure rose.
“I’ve got a group that really can handle it,” Cooper said. “They’re comfortable being uncomfortable.”
MacKinnon, the most intense player on the bench, according to Marchand, never let on that he was bothered. Almost expressionless as the pressure mounted, it was the MacKinnon they have come to know.
Sitting in a post-game press conference, staring intently forward with his arms crossed as Cooper fielded questions about the win, that intensity was still evident long after the game had ended.
“At the end of the day we’re playing for our country, the logo,” MacKinnon said. “That’s all the motivation I need to try to play my best.”