Rangers coach Peter Laviolette offers refreshing take on Nathan Mackinnon's solo effort

By Abhilasha Aditi

Modified Feb 06, 2024 20:41 GMT

Peter Laviolette, the head coach of the New York Rangers, provided an interesting perspective on Nathan MacKinnon’s solo effort that led to a goal for the Colorado Avalanche.

The incident arose in the first period of the game between the Rangers and Avalanche on Monday, with MacKinnon’s speed and talent taking his team into the lead.

MacKinnon scored the goal at 18:12 of the first period with a pass from Cale Makar, who was close to Avalanche’s blue line. While moving impressively quickly, MacKinnon took the puck on a solo rush through the neutral zone and scored an accurate wrist shot from the right circle that beat Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick.

Following the game, Daily Faceoff's Jonny Lazarus tweeted about his conversation with Laviolette, where the coach took full responsibility for MacKinnon's goal.

"That's, you know what, to be honest, it's on me," Laviolette said. "It's, you know, that's, we were, we knew what was coming at us. And sometimes I feel like I can do a better job explaining things. And so we were in place, we were in position. But after that happened, we made a quick adjustment inside the room, able to handle that speed a little bit more."

Laviolette added:

"I think some people, you have a, I think for some, for a team, you can have a game plan in place and then we should have maybe thought about that with his speed and the way he attacks the neutral zone that maybe we should have just made an adjustment. So that's on me, we made that adjustment after the period."

Nathan MacKinnon extends scoring streak

The New York Rangers secured a 2-1 overtime victory against the Colorado Avalanche, with Alexis Lafreniere netting the game-winner 1:53 into the extra period.

"Luckily it went in, so that was good," Lafreniere said (h/t USA Today). "That was a big win against a really good team. We wanted to play better defense, and I think we did a really good job."

Artemi Panarin contributed to the Rangers' comeback, scoring his team-leading 31st goal, while goaltender Jonathan Quick made 31 saves.

"I think they had more jump as the game went on," Panarin said. "We just didn't do enough to secure the win."

Nathan MacKinnon scored the lone goal for the Avalanche, extending his point streak to 14 games.

Despite the loss, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said:

"They are a great team. A lot of the credit goes to the way we played defensively. We kept the majority of their chances to the outside."

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette commended Quick's contribution, highlighting his consistent quality games. With the win, Laviolette surpassed Al Arbour for seventh place all-time with his 783rd coaching victory, stating,

"It was a really exciting consistent win by our guys. Our guys just stuck with it."