{"id":448056,"date":"2026-02-06T01:26:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/448056\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T01:26:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:26:03","slug":"olympic-gold-only-thing-left-to-cement-legacy-of-avs-nathan-mackinnon-cale-makar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/448056\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic gold only thing left to cement legacy of Avs’ Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fairy tales don\u2019t play favorites. Even for those who are perfectly cast<\/a> for Disney endings.<\/p>\n

Fairy tales don\u2019t care.<\/a> They will put you in the penalty box, veer a shot off the post, and crumple your body into the boards.<\/p>\n

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, the Avs\u2019 twin superstars, will represent Team Canada<\/a>. And when it comes to a gold medal, don\u2019t they deserve this?<\/p>\n

It is not a dream, even if pairing them together always seems like one. For the first time since 2014 in Sochi, Russia, NHL players return to the Winter Games.\n<\/p>\n

This marks the sixth time the pros will participate. Canada has stood atop the podium with NHL players on three occasions.\n<\/p>\n

So six days before Canada opens its schedule against the Czech Republic in Milano, Italy, it is time to interrupt our fantasy musing about this team and check reality.\n<\/p>\n

MacKinnon and Makar will be surrounded by pressure.<\/p>\n

If they want to cement their legacy in hockey lore, they must guide the Canadians to a gold medal. End of story. Period.<\/p>\n

It is not fair. It is just who they are. They have starred on the international stage. Their names are engraved on the Stanley Cup. They powered Team Canada to the 4 Nations Face-Off crown.\n<\/p>\n

The only line vacant on the Indeed resume? Olympic gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy can they handle it? The easy answer is everything. They are big-time players. Superstars in the league. That\u2019s what drives them, having success. And those guys don\u2019t shy away from the moment,\u201d Avs coach Jared Bednar said. \u201cThey want to be a big part of it. They want to be difference makers. They are out there to compete, to win. They will continue that there. The bigger the stakes, the better they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is impossible to overstate how important winning hockey gold is to Canada. It is World Cup soccer glory for Argentina. Or Olympic hoops for USA. With the NHL standouts in the fold, Canada is the favorite. Not just because of the talent. But the odds.<\/p>\n

For those who follow the Avs and the nightly series of Wows!, it is hard not to see MacKinnon and Makar draping themselves in glory.<\/p>\n

And, putting American rooting interest aside, who wouldn\u2019t want to see it? This is how it is supposed to go for the front-runner for MVP honors and the lock for the Norris Trophy, right?\n<\/p>\n

For Canadians, H-E-double hockey sticks, yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I am looking forward to is playing with the best players in Canada and being a part of something much bigger than the Avalanche or any NHL team, really. It\u2019s your whole country,\u201d MacKinnon said after the Avs\u2019 victory on Wednesday night. \u201cObviously, hockey in Canada, there is nothing quite like it. It\u2019s kind of like football down here. It\u2019s a big deal. There is a lot of pressure on us. It kind of brings the whole country together no matter what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a kid-on-Christmas-morning feel to the Olympics. It is special. Unique. No way around it.<\/p>\n

Makar has dreamed of this moment since he was a child playing video games against his brother, Taylor. While the soft-spoken Cale calls the opportunity \u201ca lot of fun,\u201d Taylor knows better than anyone what this means to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI vividly remember the 2010 Olympics (in Vancouver), watching that with him when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal. We have always played the NHL video game together, going against each other as Team Canada One and Team Canada Two. Yep, the same team. It\u2019s pretty amazing to see him get to do it now,\u201d said Taylor, an Avs rookie. \u201cIt is a massive deal. It\u2019s the biggest sporting event you can do, playing for Canada in the Olympics. It\u2019s hard to describe it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Cale Makar still has visions of Crosby spinning off the boards and ripping a wrister into the back of the net to beat Team USA in the overtime classic. An entire country let out a roar, including the Makar boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, of course, I remember 2010, obviously, being on home soil in Vancouver. It was pretty special to see from a kid\u2019s eyes,\u201d Cale Makar said. \u201cIt was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with concerns about the ice and rink size in Italy \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019ll change things but who cares,\u201d MacKinnon said \u2014 the anticipation for these Olympics has us frothing.<\/p>\n

The 4 Nations Face-Off ripped the fake smiles off. Team Canada and Team USA fought three times in nine seconds in Montreal as it was best-on-best, a decade in the cauldron stewing. The Americans won, then the Canadians repaid the favor, claiming the championship in a 3-2 overtime victory. MacKinnon won tournament MVP honors.\n<\/p>\n

Now, MacKinnon and Makar are back again. Avs fans know, but will the rest of the world realize what they are watching? Will their greatness be appreciated by folks tuning into hockey for the first time?<\/p>\n

MacKinnon and Makar are legit in every way. But that means the expectations for at least one gold are here in their first chance, and will remain until that medal hangs around their necks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are seeing some of the best, generational talents. We are witness to greatness every single night,\u201d Avs defenseman Josh Manson said. \u201cWe were talking about it the other day, 2010 and Sidney Crosby\u2019s golden goal. That kind of stuff. Every time these guys go they have a chance to cement themselves in history. It is there for them, and that\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fairy tales don\u2019t play favorites. Even for those who are perfectly cast for Disney endings. Fairy tales don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[3189,193,1116,19,192,144,5277,4571,5,1117,1544,1180,517,4,768,43,350,14,3978,49619],"class_list":["post-448056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-avalanche","tag-cale-makar","tag-canada","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-gold-medal","tag-hockey","tag-jared-bednar","tag-josh-manson","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nhl","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-stanley-cup","tag-troy-renck","tag-winter-games"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116021086369193148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}