The Finnish star of the Colorado Avalanche Mikko Rantanen scored his 50th goal of the season in an away game against the San Jose Sharks. Rantanen reached the milestone when he took Colorado to a 1–0 lead.
Rantanen broke 50 goals in style, as he finally scored a hat-trick in the match when he gave the Avalanche a 2–1 lead at the beginning of the second period and completed the 4–2 hit moments later. Rantanen was also involved by Nathan MacKinnon in a 3–1 match.
The match between Colorado and San Jose is still pending.
Rantanen is now emboldened in the 77th match of the season with 52+46=98 performances. So the limit of one hundred points is only two points away.
of Washington Alexander Ovechkin has held the 50-goal mark in derision in the 2000s. The Russian has broken the magical barrier an incredible nine times. For others, it has been difficult.
Pavel Bure twice, as well Steven Stamkos mixed Jaromir Jagr. The bar has been high even for the top scorers.
For the Finns, there is no backlog in the 50 goal club. Jari Kurri broke the 50-goal mark for the first time in the 1983–84 season and eventually crossed it five times. Teemu Selänne scored an incredible 76 goals as a rookie. He reached 50 goal seasons three times in his career.
Others haven’t even come close.
It’s already been 25 years since Selänte’s last 50-goal season. The last person to really threaten this bar was Selänne himself, who hit 48 hits at the age of 36 (2006–07).
Mikko Rantase, 26, became the first Finn in the millennium to reach 50 goals in the NHL. The TPS graduate was the 35th player to cross the line in the league in the 2000s.
Two years ago, Rantanen already scored 30 goals in only 52 matches, and a year ago there were 36 hits.
In the last three years, there are only four players in the NHL who have swung the net more often than Ranta. This says a lot about Rantanen’s goal-scoring power right now.
Rantanen has scored 0.44 goals per game in his NHL career, and only Kurri (0.48) and Selänne (0.47) are ahead in this statistic as well.
Through work in many ways
What has enabled Rantanen’s exceptional number of goals is the result of hard, determined work and a few coincidences at the same time. Speaking of accidents, it’s practically Colorado’s injury woes this season.
Rantanen is a natural bearer of responsibility, but this season the man from Turku has also had no choice.
When the man fell right and left in the autumn season, the responsibility of the profit unit fell to Rantanen and it showed. Rantanen straightened – if possible – his playing even more and clearly tried to be the difference between the two teams on many nights.
Rantanen’s nine game-winning goals are clearly the team’s highest, third highest in the NHL.
– The fact that Mikko scores such a number of goals when the team’s best players are not even on the bench shows how big a player he is. It’s a hell of a lot easier to be second or third fiddle in the team, but the situation is different when guys start to fall from the top, Olli Jokinen praise.
Jokinen himself scored 39 goals in his best NHL season.
– We can only guess what kind of goals would be talked about if Mikko had played the whole season by Nathan MacKinnon alongside. Whether there would be 60 or 70 goals in the bracket, Jokinen, who coaches Jukurei, laughs.
Rantanen doesn’t count bruises
The NHL world knows many players who operate in pursuit of goals with opportunistic means, but Rantanen is not one of them. He is a power forward with an extremely hard work ethic, for whom fun never comes before work.
Rantanen has punched a large number of hits from the immediate vicinity of the goal. He doesn’t count bruises when charging at close range. Big size brings an advantage and Rantanen has realized how to use it.
Rantanen’s shot is a precision weapon that will enable him to break the 50-goal mark in the future. A high-quality kuti starts quickly, for example at the end of a direct attack, but there is more in the repertoire. Rantanen has caused damage, especially from the right side with one knee on the ice, with shots that came directly from the pass.
– Rantanen’s goals are controls, wins from the second puck and so on. If you want to score 40-50 goals, you have to go in front of the goal. Many players don’t understand why they don’t score goals. Your ass can’t be stuck in the plank, you have to go in front of the goal and play between the score lines, Jokinen opens.
– Mikko protects the puck well and uses the blade and skill in a very small space. When the opponent stays behind, the direction is directly towards the goal and nowhere else. Mikko has realized how this thing works and is able to implement the idea from one night to the next. That makes him special..
Rantanen’s greatest strength is versatility; has work ethic, strength, skill and an excellent shot.
– When you can’t start a riot on the offensive end, you have to be aware of the importance of other high-quality playing. You can’t force the game because you’re not doing well in attack. Then you have to do something defensively. Through high-quality overall play, the next goals always come, Rantanen stated to Urheilu a couple of years ago.
Not many 50-goal power forwards of Rantanen’s level have been seen in the NHL this millennium.
– Mikko is (Jaromir) Jagr’s unborn nephew, Ville Nieminen, who played 385 NHL games in his own career, elaborated in Urheilu’s article in January.
The focus is on the desire to compete and be the best
Naturally, there is also a tough character behind the paint factory. Although Rantanen is known as a relaxed and polite person, the Turku man is not looking for friends in the rink. Not even in practice.
‘s hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen has taken Rantanen and other NHL players from Turku to ice training in the summer.
– He’s not lapping in rotation exercises. Every single time he scores, and it really hurts him if the puck doesn’t go in. He retrieves the puck as many times as he can, Lehkonen opened earlier in the winter in an article in Urheilu.
Even during the games, the fire of the feeling is visible. Rantanen doesn’t shy away from struggles or vertical pressure when the feeling starts to take up space. Many remember the skirmishes Esa Lindell and Jani Hakanpää with from the current season.
For Mikko Rantanen, merciless competitive spirit is not a word of mouth.
– It’s caring. Top players compete for every single thing, it comes from mother’s milk. Even if Mikko doesn’t say it out loud, I can assure you that every year he wants to play better than Nathan MacKinnon and be the man on the first violin. The amount of work, competitive spirit and belief in one’s own abilities are tough for these guys, Jokinen says.
If Kurri reached 50 goals five times and Selänne three times, it’s unlikely that Rantanenka will do it once.
– It won’t last this time. Now that’s the kind of player it is. There aren’t that many guys who reach 50 goals, so this is an incredible achievement. And now we have to remember that Miko didn’t have any summer after the long last season. This is like the second season in a row. It makes the achievement even harder, Jokinen enthuses.