BROSSARD, Que. — There’s an entire generation of hockey fans who don’t know what Nathan MacKinnon was like before he became the player they now watch dominate the NHL on a nightly basis.
They might not have been around to watch his first four seasons in the league, when he only showed flashes of realizing the great potential he held as a first-overall pick of the Colorado Avalanche in 2013. And if they weren’t, they likely didn’t know much about the personal quest he went on to change his trajectory before Season 5.
MacKinnon detailed the process of going from habitually producing between 50 and 63 points to suddenly hitting the high 90s and never looking back on The Spittin’ Chiclets podcast back in 2019, and it’s a worthwhile listen for anyone who wants to get into the mindset of an athlete looking to unlock the full breadth of their ability.
For those who just want the synopsis, MacKinnon talked — and has talked plenty since — about hiring a sports psychologist to help him handle the pressure of living up to his enormous billing and the need to stop playing the comparison game and just focus on himself. He also talked about always working hard before but realizing there was an entire other level to get to in that department, and it was fascinating.
Often what drives that level of introspection is extensive struggle. Invariably, a player that has never gone through it before — because they’ve always been the best at every other level — suffers longer than they expect to.
And then reality hopefully hits: That this is the best league in the world, and it’s filled with players dying to prove they’re better than you, and that what’s made you successful before arriving needs to be built on considerably for you to enjoy the same type of success you previously enjoyed.
MacKinnon was talking about how he dealt with reality with the Chiclets crew less than two months after Kirby Dach was drafted third overall by the Chicago Blackhawks. Back then, he was two weeks away from his 23rd birthday and two seasons removed from a 16-goal, 53-point season that saw him finish minus-14 and left him determined to ensure his next step wouldn’t be backward.
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Dach is now 23. We’re not comparing him and MacKinnon as players, but he is 243 games into what was supposed to be a more promising career than what it’s been so far. He is arriving at the same crossroads MacKinnon reached 300 games into his career, and it’s no coincidence he’s there now — on the heels of his greatest struggle yet.
Dach knew this season was going to be hard for him no matter what, coming off ACL and MCL reconstruction for a knee injury that kept him out of all but two games last season.
“I knew it would take time,” Dach said to us on Wednesday. “I was at home last summer (in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.) watching the Oilers run with my friends, seeing how Connor Brown (who tore his ACL the season prior) had struggled all year before playing amazing in the playoffs, and I was thinking about it.”
But nothing could’ve adequately prepared Dach for what it would actually be like to go through.
His game had come up significantly from where it was over three up-and-down seasons with the Blackhawks, and then it was completely shut down by one hit. Starting it back up has been a much slower burn than he’d have expected, and the disappointment of producing just two goals and nine points and sporting a minus-22 rating through 31 games has been a heavy burden for him to carry.
Dach wouldn’t have wished for it to have gone this way so far, but maybe it had to just to bring him to some important realizations that he hopes will propel him forward.
The first one was that even if Dach thought he was doing everything he could to mitigate the difficulty of returning from his injury, there was a stronger investment to make.
“I kind of looked at that maybe three weeks ago and decided to go deeper and just do everything possible to give myself the best chance and give my teammates and coaches the best version of me,” he said. “I committed to finding that extra level of drive and commitment to the game and doing all the little things before and after practice and in the gym and on off-days — treating my body right and making sure I’m doing the right things to feel good for the next day — to build better habits.
“I think there’s a lot of off-ice work and stuff that I do on my own when nobody’s around now. If we have the chance some days, sometimes I’ll get out early when nobody’s around and skate by myself to just get a feel of the puck. And in the gym, it’s not just doing everything hard that one day but more about consistency and building up and doing everything right; not overdoing it, but having that consistency to hopefully change the layout of my season and my trajectory.”
It hasn’t happened yet, but it would never happen if Dach refused to face some hard truths he’s currently grappling with.
We asked him if he’d approach last summer’s preparation for this season differently, and he said, “For sure.”
Dach added that realization is helping him now, and should help him next summer, regardless of whether or not his further investment into the current labour bears fruit between now and then.
He could face more adversity ahead, but he doesn’t necessarily view that as a bad thing.
“I think this year has honestly felt like a bunch of tests,” Dach said. “It’s honestly felt like a lot of learning lessons, a lot of failing, a lot of retaking classes. Through those tough moments, those dark moments, those failures, you learn and become better with it. Over time it builds and you grow into the person and player you want to be. What I’m trying to do is take away those lessons of what maybe I should’ve done last summer and what I need to do next summer and what I’m doing right now in-season and how I need to continue that so that I take it into next summer and build on it and not put myself in a spot where I step further back.”
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis clearly wants the same thing for the player.
His support for Dach has, at times, drawn the ire of many Canadiens fans, who’d rather see St. Louis staple Dach to the bench every time he has an underwhelming or bad shift.
But the coach is balancing actions like those — and some hard conversations with the player — with the nurture required to get something more from him down the line.
It’s what St. Louis says he’s doing with all the young players who have the high potential to help turn the Canadiens into a winning team in the future.
“I always tell our young players that I’m working more for their future as a player and not necessarily for who they are today as a player,” he said. “That’s part of trying to get your young players to evolve, because that’s what’s best for their future and, even more so, for the future of the team.”
It’s hard to imagine the opposite approach would be better for Dach right now.
His fragile confidence being trampled on won’t help.
“It’s nice to have a coach that believes in you and wants you to get better and doesn’t just shut you out and turn you away,” Dach said. “I think when, as a player, you get into a bad place, your game or your career can go off the rails and leave you without even knowing what’ll be the next step. It’s been nice to have his support, and my teammates’ support, and trainers and everybody here. There have been hard conversations, and there’s been things I’ve needed to clean up in my game on my own. I’m trying to clean that up more and more with each game and be better.”
A lot of that work is happening off the ice, in the background, on both the physical and mental side.
That reinvestment a few weeks ago was preceded by a complete disengagement from social media, and Dach is hoping all the changes he’s made help him become the player he — and many people around him — believed he could be when he first entered the league.
It takes time, it takes struggling, and it takes facing hard truths, like MacKinnon and many others have before him.
That’s what Dach is realizing this season.
