Evaluating Mikko Rantanen's 4 point game vs Calgary
Last night, Mikko Rantanen extended his point streak to a career best 10 games thus far, a big emphasis in Colorado's 6-2 win last night against the Calgary Flames. Now known as one of the elite power wingers in the NHL, Rantanen has a distinct combination of brute size and power, along with natural instincts as both a playmaker and goal-scorer. He's been a major factor in the last handful of years when it comes to producing offense, as he's consistently been incorporating play-driving abilities year-by-year into his game to create consistency within his play.
The first sequence starts immediately in this video, where Calgary's aggressive box collapses on the walls here. We see F1 pressuring Rantanen high along the wall, but Rantanen engages and is able to keep that puck in possession. The puck eventually gets worked low, where the Avs move the puck along the goal line for a second, and then it gets worked low-high. Rantanen's instincts as an off-puck player allow him to recognize that he can open a pass lane as a weak side option, so he sneaks down low further and recognizes space.
The high forwards aren't in suitable position for Calgary, forcing D1 Rasmus Andersson to step up in a diamond like formation. D2, not aware of Rantanen in weak side space, takes the net front and leaves Rantanen open backdoor. The puck gets free to Nichushkin, where he settles a rebounding shot, passes it backdoor, and Rantanen is right in space to tap it home.
At :50, we see that Colorado tries to quick strike in transition with a quick breakout. F3 is in good ice for Calgary, staying in the middle with F1/F2 forced to backtrack in this transition sequence. Colorado recognized that with both F1/F2 pinching, and both of them now tracking, they needed to create a chance quickly here. Rantanen gains momentum on the exit by swinging away to create space and be a viable pass option in neutral ice here. Rantanen stays wide, not allowing F3 from Calgary to collapse on him initially since he is in middle ice. Eventually, F3 Backlund does collapse on Rantanen, preventing the middle from being taken and forcing Rantanen to problem-solve in a straight-line route here. This is tricky, because there's multiple things going on here:
Not ideal options at all, but Rantanen finds a way to problem-solve here. So the 3 components to Rantanen's attack route on entry above are not translatable, but the translatable component of Rantanen's attack came through his problem-solving. What he does here is subtle, but makes me wonder if he somewhat had this as a setup play the entire sequence.
Using his peripheral vision, which is translatable here, he sees Val Nichushkin swinging through for close support on the near faceoff dot. Rantanen sees him in space, and slips a pass behind him to Nichushkin, in a much more viable area to curl back and handle the puck in space. There's two major translatable components here, them being 1) The peripheral vision and awareness from Rantanen and 2) The problem-solving recognition to find a teammate in space.
Nichushkin makes a cross-seam pass, a near royal road pass, to MacKinnon on the far side, whom one-times it home.
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1:20 is the next sequence, Rantanen's third point of the game. A structured breakout sequence begins Colorado's offense here. F1 and F2 are both deep in Colorado's zone for Calgary, and F3 is tracking back in neutral from outside the dots on in. Rantanen comes off his line to separate from Calgary's defenders, and moves into space outside the dot lane to create separation and engage Colorado's line rush off his catch. Through Rantanen slowing play down here to get Colorado's other two attackers, MacKinnon and Nichushkin, to gain speed differential, Rantanen's ability to delay here is critical.
MacKinnon gets behind both D and goes straight for the net, which opens up space there, but Rantanen instead fires a great cross-seam pass to Nichushkin on the weak side. He saw Nichushkin the whole way with his head up, and Nichushkin does the rest from there to score.
Finally, at 1:45 here, it starts with Rantanen backpedaling against Calgary's F1 here to keep the puck away from him. Then with poise, Rantanen looks to get around F1 on the exit, and looks to engage F2 by going through his hands. F2 is already angling his feet and his stick, so going through the hands here would give Rantanen leverage, instead of trying to dangle through his feet.
Rantanen found the inside, mishandled the puck here, initially losing possession. Soon, Colorado gets the puck back in neutral ice, where Rantanen holds the line in order to not go offside. Makar attacks on entry, where he hits the post, and the puck wound up nearly at the end of the faceoff circle. Rantanen shoots from nearly the red line, and is able to find the back of the net.
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