MacKinnon: Avs 'Weren't feeling it' vs. Blues

Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen admitted that their team played poorly in Colorado's Game 2 loss to St. Louis, which evened the second-round series. MacKinnon believes the Avalanche have learned from previous playoff disappointment and will bounce back in Game 3.

Video Transcript

NATHAN MACKINNON: [INAUDIBLE] Like I've talked about, really good player. But also, us, you know, we didn't have our jump tonight. Our execution was off. Yeah, just weren't feeling it. Just fighting it out there. And it's unfortunate, but it's 1-1. You know, we get to go on the road and hopefully steal one there, hopefully two. And we've got to forget about it and move on and get back to the way we can play. OK.

Sorry, you guys go ahead then. What?

- Why were you-- weren't you feeling that jump?

NATHAN MACKINNON: I don't know. We just weren't. It happens. Trying our best, got prepared, everything we could. Just off, everyone was just a little off tonight, I think, or really off. And we still had a chance to tie it up. We-- you know, Gabe scored that goal, we were feeling good. It felt like the building was back in it. We had our legs back a little bit.

And just a little miscommunication, that kind of sums up our night, in the third there, off the faceoff. And yeah, they ended it. But got to move on.

- They changed their lineup a little bit today. Did that have an impact, did you notice any impact?

MIKKO RANTANEN: No, I think it was more, just, us not playing to our strengths and not playing how we can play, like we played in Game 1. So I think it's just that. Like Nate said, just short memory here and move on and try to learn from that game. And we know-- we know we can play a lot better than that. So to Game 3 in two days. So let's get ready.

- You guys were talking about just not having it tonight. Is this a game that you just scrap and move on and try to go in with the same game plan? Or is there some adjustments that need to be made?

NATHAN MACKINNON: No, I think we need to learn from it, for sure. You know, our execution and compete, you know, it was just tough to-- they had a good start. And for whatever reason, we just couldn't execute. And they just kind of kept coming, and we kind of shot ourselves in the foot.

But we need a better start. I think we can learn from that. Take a page out of their book and have a great start on the road in a couple days here.

- Mikko, it seemed like their forecheck was a lot more intense, a lot more effective from the start of the game and probably put you guys on your heels a little bit. Is that fair?

MIKKO RANTANEN: Yeah, yeah, I think so. We were not breaking out as well as we did in the first game. And part of it is, obviously, they had better legs today and they had better jump than us. So-- and like I said, our execution wasn't great. So breakouts are about execution and getting out of the zone quick and going back to the offense.

So that's a fair point, that they were kind of eating us up, especially in the first 30 minutes.

- Do you have any thoughts on, just, the officiating and, specifically, the penalties that Toews and Nichushkin took there in the second?

NATHAN MACKINNON: Yeah, I didn't-- I think Val was-- I think the rule is if you make your best effort to get out of the way, Val ended up behind the net, actually. He didn't even end up through Binnington. So I thought he did his best to get out of the way. He was off balance with Faulk on a partial breakaway.

But I mean, yeah, the refs have a tough job. I thought it was all fine tonight. Yeah, it was on us, for sure. It definitely wasn't the refs' fault, that's for sure.

- Hey, Nate, you all had such great success against Binnington last season-- in the last postseason and certainly in regular season. What is it about him in these first two games that might be a little bit different? Why is he such a challenge?

NATHAN MACKINNON: I'm not sure. He looks like he's feeling it, and we got to take away his eyes. I know it's kind of a cliche thing, but he definitely saw a lot of pucks tonight. We went over that in the second. You know, their D are doing a good job boxing and stuff. But we got to fight a little harder to get in his eyes and get tips.

But I thought, Game 1, we did enough to score more than 3. He played great, don't get me wrong. But-- and then tonight, we were bad. We were really bad tonight. So yeah, I think he's playing great, but we can't control that. We just got to keep throwing pucks at him.

- How do you not dwell on-- like, you said you learn from it, but not dwell on it?

NATHAN MACKINNON: Yeah, I think that's with our experience. I mean, that's what you learn. I think, years past, we might dwell on it and get down on ourselves and each other or whatever it might be. But we just got to pick each other up and move on and stay positive.

We have a great team. We still believe we can get this thing done, win this series. We're not going to sweep every round. So it's fine, I think. We have a lot better, and we're still in it tonight. So there's a lot of positives as well. But definitely need a better start Saturday.