'LOVE PLAYING AGAINST HIM'

A decade ago, MacKenzie Weegar and Nathan MacKinnon shared in the glory, together, with the Halifax Mooseheads.
MacKinnon then repeated the championship magic at the game's top level last year.
Weegar was watching - because, often, there's no greater motivation than seeing another indulge in your childhood dream before you can.
"It makes you hungry. It really does," Weegar said, with a battle between the two on tap tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome. "Even (listening to) the guys in the dressing room who've won … You want to win, you want to be part of that category of a champion - and when people talk about you, you want to be talked about as a champion.
"I think about it all the time, about raising that Stanley Cup. It gives me goosebumps even right now talking to you guys."

Weegar was 18 when he met MacKinnon for the first time, joining a powerhouse Halifax team that was later considered one of the best junior outfits of all time. The Mooseheads - led by Jonathan Drouin, Martin Frk and MacKinnon himself - torched the QMJHL with a remarkable 58-6-4 record in the regular season, before winning the league title and knocking off the Portland Winterhawks for the national championship.
Even at that age, it was clear what kind of a pro MacKinnon was poised to become. He had 32 goals and 75 points in only 44 games as a 17-year-old, and seemed to have a competitive edge over everyone in the field.
In fact, it's become a bit of a punchline, with former Avalanche Nikita Zadorov dishing up some insight into the nutritional habits 'Nate' rigorously enforced in the Colorado dressing room. Soda, ice cream, or sugar/desserts of any kind were strictly off limits, according to the Flames rearguard, in conversation with a Russian outlet.
It might not have gone that far, with Zadorov also explaining how creamy carbonara sauce was a no-no on the players' pregame pasta. But Weegar, certainly, had some firsthand knowledge of how seriously MacKinnon took matters.
And that had a lasting impact that still resonates today.
"We're all competitors in the room," Weegar said. "But the intensity and dialling in the focus every single day, and the nutrition…. He was getting that at 16 and 17 years old. It's pretty impressive. I took that with me everywhere I went.
"I miss battling him in practice, but I honestly love playing against him. We go head-to-head and you can see, getting him frustrated means you're doing your job. That's what you go for.
"You could ask Naz (Kadri) the same thing. Whoever's played with him or know him at all, he's an intense human being. It's good to make it that intense, at times. He gets everybody going and makes everybody play their best. It showed last year. I'm sure he was intense and a competitor with those guys and it was the same thing at 17. He treated the older guys the same way he'd treat anybody."
Some might consider it 'frightening' when a player like MacKinnon winds up in the neutral zone and comes barreling down on you, 1-on-1.
But Weegar? He loves it.

Maybe it's the competitive fire that MacKinnon helped light in the first place, or the fact that bragging rights are always on the line when you face off against an old friend. Whatever the reason, when you have a chance to shut that down and give your team a bit of a spark, it's meaningful.
Just don't ask him to keep up in another key area:
The trash talk.
"I don't know much I could say to him because he'd come back with 40 different chirps that are probably better," Weegar laughed. "The best chirp for me is shutting him down and giving him a tough night."
Certainly, that has to be focus for the Flames tonight, who are looking to bounce back from a 2-1 loss in Nashville the other night and get this important four-game homestand started on the right foot.
It's a tough turnaround for the players after a four-hour flight home from Tennessee and landing at 2:15 a.m. MT (or 3:15 a.m., according to their bodies after spending 10 days in the Central time zone).
Instead of taking a day off, the players came in for a light workout on Tuesday to help stay in a rhythm and not let their cardio capacity suffer too much from the schedule. (The players, by the way, will be getting Thursday off instead, with two days until their next game.)
"For me, it's the elevation and the lungs," Weegar said. "The big thing is to get enough sleep.
"Rest, stretch.
"A lot of teams maybe wouldn't come in after a long road trip, but sometimes it is good for us to get a bike ride in and flush it out and get the lungs ready and legs going for tonight."
With the defending Cup champs in town - who are without the reigning Norris winner, Cale Makar - they'll need to have their wind. Fortunately, games like this are easy to get up for, no matter what the calendar throws at you.
"It was an OK trip," Weegar said, reflecting on the Flames' 2-1-2 mark away from the 'Dome. "I think that's been our year. We've got to find a way that when we have (opportunities) to climb the standings.
"It was a tough road trip. Tough teams in there. I think we could have done a little bit better, but now we're playing the defending champs tonight and we're focused on that.
"We're still trying to climb the standings here and battle hard."