Allen, Chubb NFL draft still haunts Broncos Country
The Broncos don’t need another first-round edge rusher. They need an exorcist. Because years after John Elway left the building, The Ghost of Josh Allen still haunts the dang place.
The specter of big No. 17, dressed in a tattered Orange & Blue jersey that never was, passes through walls at Dove Valley, rattling his first-down chains in the dead of night, wailing like a banshee at the stars shining back from an arid sky.
The creaks and howls pick up at this time of year. The real-life Allen just played in his 10th NFL playoff game since January 2020 with Buffalo, his reallife team.
Hindsight makes geniuses of us all. But in a bit of drafting karma that the football gods still hold against the Broncos like an unpliable grudge, the ex-Wyoming quarterback once dangled for Denver to take with the No. 5 selection draft.
You know the rest of the story by heart. Or, at least, by the shattered pieces of what’s left of it. Elway, then the Broncos GM, chose to pluck North Carolina State outside linebacker Bradley Chubb instead. Allen went at No. 7 — more karmic irony for Elway — to the Bills, who said “thanks much,” and laughed all the way to the bank.
While Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes seem to own Allen in the postseason, the fact remains: Buffalo’s signal-caller has now appeared in as many postseason games since 2019 as the Orange & Blue amassed from 2007 to 2015. And has piled up almost as many playoff wins (five for Allen; six for the Broncos) in those 10 tilts.
“We have to make sure that we have the most dangerous pass rush in the NFL,” Chubb said on a conference call after the Broncos brought him on board. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity.” in the 2018 NFL
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“I told (our equipment guy) to throw (my scoring pucks) in the crowd,” he said. “I’m not going to keep them, so hopefully people like them. … I’ve heard (MVP chants) before and I’ve never won MVP, so, it doesn’t mean much. The fans are obviously very supportive, but I’m not getting my hopes up.”
Well, if MacKinnon won’t be boastful, his teammates will do it for him.
“He’s up there (on the Avs’ Mount Rushmore) with Joe for sure, and with (Peter) Forsberg,” said Mikko Rantanen, who also had five points on Wednesday. “With the Stanley Cup we won, that helps his case to already be in that conversation.”
Aside from MacKinnon’s brilliance, Colorado got a significant milestone from its star defenseman, too.
In the final seconds of the first period, Makar jump-started the Avs when he got the puck near center ice off a pass from Andrew Cogliano, blew past a pair of Capitals, and streaked down the middle of the ice before burying a wrister in the top left shelf to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.
“It was a sleepy first period by the whole team, but the goal by Cale opened it up for us,” Rantanen said.
The shorthanded score came with 37 seconds left in the period and made more history for Makar, who on Saturday in Philadelphia became the second-fastest defenseman to reach 300 career points, one game short of tying Bobby Orr’s record. Makar’s goal on Wednesday gave him the most goals by a defenseman in franchise history at 76, passing Tyson Barrie.
“I’m very honored (by the mark),” Makar said. “It’s not really a goal I was too focused on, but you don’t get there unless I got guys like (MacKinnon and Rantanen) around me.”
It also marked Makar’s first regular-season shorthanded goal, and his four shorthanded points this year are the most by a Colorado defenseman since Craig Wolanin in 1995-96. The franchise record for a defender is five by the Nordiques’ Alexei Gusarov in 1992-93.
The Avs took further control less than three minutes into the second period, taking advantage of a power play and more poor defense by the Capitals. Rantanen’s cross-ice pass from the right faceoff circle over to the left one found MacKinnon, who had a clean look at the net and the all-star easily beat Washington goal Charlie Lindgren with a slap shot.
MacKinnon was just getting started. is only arena’s Nikola
A little over four minutes later, Colorado cashed in on another Washington penalty. Rantanen and Makar dumped the puck back and forth to each other before Makar zipped a clean pass to MacKinnon, who was set up at about the exact same spot as his first goal. The result was the same, a slap shot that beat Lindgren on the left side, and the Avs were in complete command at 3-0.
“That was a pretty similar goal (to the first one),” Rantanen said. “When you get those goals, and the confidence is high… it just snowballs from there. We were moving the puck around and finding the open guy, and tonight it was Nate.”
But MacKinnon, amid his phenomenal season, wasn’t done as he tied the franchise record for goals in a period.
In a two-on-one break, Rantanen assisted MacKinnon, who slowed down right in front of the net and put home a backhanded goal to the top left shelf as Lindgren sprawled in vain on the ice. A flurry of hats rained onto the ice to commemorate MacKinnon’s eighth career hat trick, and second this season after tallying a Colorado-record four goals in the Avs’ win over Ottawa on Dec. 21.
“(Rantanen) was playmaking so well tonight, and looking for me,” MacKinnon said. “On my third goal, that was a really nice pass on the twoon-one. It was really selfless hockey from Mikko.”
The Capitals finally got on the board almost halfway through the third period, when Dylan Strome scored off a loose puck in the front of the net, beating Alexandar Georgiev to negate the shutout.
But Rantanen responded for Colorado a few minutes later by knocking in a deflection in the front of the net, and then MacKinnon’s wrist shot through traffic in four-on-four action capped his seventh career five-point game. Washington scored a fouron-four goal a few minutes later, but it made no difference to the raucous home crowd.
And to his head coach, MacKinnon’s otherworldly effort left Jared Bednar at a loss for words again, while he simultaneously appreciated the forward’s lack of excitement for his individual achievements.
“He couldn’t surprise me at this point,” Bednar said. “That’s just where he’s at. He’s that good. Look at what he does at a nightly basis. What (more) am I going to say?
“And deep down, all the true competitors have (his mentality). It’s not about what he’s done tonight or what he did two years ago or last year, or this year to this point. It’s about trying to win again. His focus is on the end game (of another Stanley Cup).”