A lull in McDavid's reign — is he off the pedestal?

McFlash97

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Oct 10, 2017
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Barkov taught McDavid a few things. Here’s one: when you’re great, it’s cringe to compete for regular season scoring titles.
Barkov was getting caved in most of that series man. What you talking about 😄. If Edmonton even had league average goaltending in games 1 and 3, it would have been over in 5. Barkov isn't teaching 97 anything. Let's be real here.
 

crowfish

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Jun 3, 2011
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The true pts/game leaderboard looks like this right now:

(true games played & vs goaltenders)

1) McDavid 1.54
2) Kucherov 1.45
3) MacKinnon 1.35

And that is with McDavid having no finish this year (him or his linemates), and also getting minimal powerplay opportunities.

It's slightly annoying that MacKinnon being on 20+ empty net point pace has to cause so many stupid threads like this one.
 
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Stoneman89

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Connor McDavid's been shut down in two consecutive games while Draisaitl's got on the board in both with timely goals. What's more, Draisaitl has edged McDavid out in ppg (1.51 vs 1.50) while having a substantially more goal-heavy point distribution. Additionally, both MacKinnon and Kucherov have produced at a higher pace the whole season after their impressive emergence last season. Is McDavid off the pedestal as the one in his own tier?



At times in the past Draisaitl has been a 1B to McDavid's 1A, matching his teammate's offensive output but eventually the latter has usually pulled away comfortably. Is there something here — is the two-headed monster of McDrai having an internal shift in power? I don't think Mario ever took a back step to Jaromir when both were in their respective primes.



Also, McDavid as a goal scorer is an interesting case and will be cool to debate over once he hangs 'em up. He's shown he can be the best for a sustained period when he puts his mind to it. Even still, his CV barely puts him above Crosby as a goal scorer. In terms of outscoring the field in goals and assists, I don't think he's going to replicate his peak season. Granted, he was out of the lineup for three games but that's not quite enough to put an asterisk on this season IMO.



Is it unfair to start throwing shade on the best player in the world for a little lull? He's just a human, after all. Well, so are Gretzky and Lemieux.
He's having some down time, it happens to the best.
 

crowfish

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Not a big deal. He went pointless in game 6 n 7 in last years finals. So it happens

As a Crosby fan, you would know all about going pointless in the finals...

Like the 2009 SCF for instance, you must recall him going pointless in games 5, 6 & 7 (while being -3)

On the brink of elimination in back-to-back SC Finals, you would think such a "clutch" player would show up with his best hockey. But thankfully Talbot scored 2 goals in a 2-1 Game 7 so we don't have to worry about that being on his resume.
 

PainForShane

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Barkov was getting caved in most of that series man. What you talking about 😄. If Edmonton even had league average goaltending in games 1 and 3, it would have been over in 5. Barkov isn't teaching 97 anything. Let's be real here.

What are you talking about? "Let's be real here" ok.

Edmonton was shut out in game 1, if they had league average goaltending they would've still been shut out. In game 3, Barkov initially started the first goal off a turnover and later scored the insurance goal, Panthers don't win game 3 without Barkov.

To your goalie point, Skinner did have that one terrible misplay in game 3 but the other gm 3 goals weren't his fault, over the series he let up only 16 goals (7 games) with a .909 save percentage in the series. And a lot of those goals were a result of pure defensive breakdowns. Sure Bob was better, but Edmonton didn't lose the series because of Skinner.

Re: game 7, if McDavid had scored a couple of points in game 7 -- which the entire hockey world expected him to -- he'd have a cup ring right now. Instead, he went scoreless while matched up mostly against Barkov, who won that battle and the cup.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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clicked on this thread expecting steroids allegations
 

Coffey

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As a Crosby fan, you would know all about going pointless in the finals...

Like the 2009 SCF for instance, you must recall him going pointless in games 5, 6 & 7 (while being -3)

On the brink of elimination in back-to-back SC Finals, you would think such a "clutch" player would show up with his best hockey. But thankfully Talbot scored 2 goals in a 2-1 Game 7 so we don't have to worry about that being on his resume.
Yup. People seem to forget. Especially people like Nathaniel.

2009 he had 2 assists in the finals and zero points in games 5-7, including the SC winning game.

In 2016 he had 4 assists in the finals and zero points in games 3-5. Two of his four assists in the SC winning game.

In 2017 he finally scored a goal in the finals coupled with 6 assists and zero points in the SC winning game.
 

Connor McConnor

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Nov 22, 2017
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I understand this is HF and most of the people on here don't actually watch hockey outside their own teams and just love posting their own opinions. That said, I find it funny how a guy who has absolutely lapped the field for almost his entire career in the regular season was regularly getting criticized for not getting it done in the playoffs.

He just came off of a Conn Smythe in a losing effort and one of the best playoff runs we've ever seen. His team has some of the best underlying numbers in the league and have been dominant since an early season slump. Top 3 Vegas favorite for the Cup. And we get multiple threads about someone else taking the throne from him?

What has MacK done in his last 2 playoffs? Let's praise him for his RS play when their team is not very good and need to stack his line? Kuch plays with Guentzel and Point. His team has put up 6-8 goals in games he hasn't even played. Lmao the hypocrisy on here is funny.

McDavid needs to put up 150+ points, win the Hart, and then go and win a SC in the same season to please some of these trolls.

As a Crosby fan, you would know all about going pointless in the finals...

Like the 2009 SCF for instance, you must recall him going pointless in games 5, 6 & 7 (while being -3)

On the brink of elimination in back-to-back SC Finals, you would think such a "clutch" player would show up with his best hockey. But thankfully Talbot scored 2 goals in a 2-1 Game 7 so we don't have to worry about that being on his resume.
How about the Olympics? Sid was one of the worst players on the team but scored the GWG so now everyone forgets?
 

Nathaniel Skywalker

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I understand this is HF and most of the people on here don't actually watch hockey outside their own teams and just love posting their own opinions. That said, I find it funny how a guy who has absolutely lapped the field for almost his entire career in the regular season was regularly getting criticized for not getting it done in the playoffs.

He just came off of a Conn Smythe in a losing effort and one of the best playoff runs we've ever seen. His team has some of the best underlying numbers in the league and have been dominant since an early season slump. Top 3 Vegas favorite for the Cup. And we get multiple threads about someone else taking the throne from him?

What has MacK done in his last 2 playoffs? Let's praise him for his RS play when their team is not very good and need to stack his line? Kuch plays with Guentzel and Point. His team has put up 6-8 goals in games he hasn't even played. Lmao the hypocrisy on here is funny.

McDavid needs to put up 150+ points, win the Hart, and then go and win a SC in the same season to please some of these trolls.


How about the Olympics? Sid was one of the worst players on the team but scored the GWG so now everyone forgets?
7 points in 7 games. 2nd in team scoring and one of the worst players?
 

daver

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The true pts/game leaderboard looks like this right now:

(true games played & vs goaltenders)

1) McDavid 1.54
2) Kucherov 1.45
3) MacKinnon 1.35

Fun fact, in the four preceding seasons, McDavid has 30 EN points, including 11 in 21/22, to MacKinnon's 18.

Crosby had one EN point in 06/07.
 
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PainForShane

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7 points in 7 games. 2nd in team scoring and one of the worst players?

Like that poster said, no one remembers Sid's overall performance across that tournament because of the overtime GWG. Apparently including himself. Seems like his statement supports the idea that more important games (such as the gold medal game or game 7) are remembered more clearly than other games -- doesn't seem like this was the point he was trying to make, but whatever.

Anyway like you said Sid finished 2nd in points on the team that year, even led the team in ice time (among forwards) in the semi against Slovakia in a game where Canada spent most of the game defending a lead. And that's on a team with prime Jonathan Toews (who would win his first cup later that year).

***

Regardless, not sure Crosby and the 2010 Olympics have anything to do with this thread topic. Not entirely sure why a McDavid supporter proactively decided to introduce him to this particular conversation
 
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Cats2TheCup

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Barkov was getting caved in most of that series man. What you talking about 😄. If Edmonton even had league average goaltending in games 1 and 3, it would have been over in 5. Barkov isn't teaching 97 anything. Let's be real here.
McDavid got caved games 6 and 7. Barkov was the player to lift the cup.
 

NotCommitted

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Jul 4, 2013
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This is such a weird thread to have, McDavid is right up there with scoring leaders. Besides, he's only had 2 (regular) seasons where he was in a completely different league to anyone else, 20-21 and 22-23. Apart from those two years, whether he won the Art Ross or not, the margins were somewhat tight, so it's not like he's dominated the league for years without peers and now suddenly is falling off.

It's just even on an average year (to him), he's still in the mix and might even take it. On a career year no one can touch him. Lots of hockey to play yet anyway, wouldn't be the first time he passes the field on the latter half of the season.

Also the McDavid vs Barkov takes are pretty ripe, it's not like anyone "dominated" anyone in that matchup. It went both ways. Overall I'd give it to Barkov since he's the one who lifted the cup, but goals were 1-1 with those two on the ice vs each other. Edmonton had more xG in that matchup but it's pretty much offset by Barkov starting more in the D-zone. Also the goal Barkov scored vs McDavid was pretty epic, but it's not like Bob didn't bail out the Barkov a few times. It's good it was tight, having a two time Selke winner go against the best in the game is the kind of stuff that's great to watch as a neutral fan.
 
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