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

[Cup or Bust]

He has always been better in the 2nd half. He is still scoring at his career average of 1.50 ppg. That is him just playing average.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Imagine being "only" 4th in PPG means you're dusted

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

McDavid got caved games 6 and 7. Barkov was the player to lift the cup.

Must be nice to play for a competent org. He'd never know that if he played up here.

 

[Video Nasty]

Imagine being "only" 4th in PPG means you're dusted

And that’s with leaving a game 37 seconds in due to injury factored in. He’s 3rd with that mind, or the minimum he has been for all 10 seasons he’s been in the NHL.

 

[Atomos2]

This is typically the type of season when he has a moderately slow (for his standards) reg season and then goes off in the playoffs to an unreal level to get the Conn Smythe. It has happened before to other superstars.

 

[Video Nasty]

Peak, healthy McDavid is losing the Hart/Ross races again, to a number of lesser players…again.

It’s times like this that make you wonder if he’s closer to Esposito than to Mario, who at 27 would be automatic for the Ross.

Why didn’t you mention age 28 for Mario? Is it because he missed 62 games and was totally irrelevant until his age 30 season?

 

[BHD]

This reminds of when fans were obsessed with replacing Crosby as the best player in the world.

 

[Slats432]

The OP right before they started typing....

 

[Sheppy]

Dust.

He's only operating at a 115-120 point pace.

 

[FinlandPanther]

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.

Lmao. Wow so you didn’t watch the series. Barkov DOGWALKED him. That’s what the best defensive forward in the league does.

 

[bucks_oil]

Was at the game in Climate Pledge this evening, ....

Then again I never was with the way McDavid is put on a pedestal of being the greatest ever or the heir to Gretzky and Lemieux or whatever, he's a player who hands and mind can keep up with his feet at top speed that also gets to play in a powderpuff league catered to these talents, there were others before who didn't get such a fortuitous league context and there are others copying this game now and for the future

I understand the need for contemporaneous zoomer heroes though, given the world is seemingly falling apart otherwise, escapist fantasy is a comforting retreat from reality, it's just the sports equivalent of all the dorky superhero movies in vogue recently

Growing up, Thursday nights were my nirvana (before Nirvana). I'd eat caramel corn and ice cream for dinner after swimming & hockey practice, while waiting for sisters to return from Gymnastics and Dad to return from... well the pub I suppose. Fond memories of Gretzky and Kurri tucking me into a recliner most Thursday nights.

... and then he ripped my heart out after we drove 3 hours to the Peg, only to watch him get shutout by Freddy Brathwaite.

To wit... it's not just zoomers putting Gretzky on that pedestal, and you saw ONE game. There are PLENTY of Oiler fans who remember both live and have no issues whatsoever making room for McDavid on hockey's Mount Rushmore.

 

[bucks_oil]

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.

Yea he's clearly the best of his era but Lemieux or Gretzky would be lapping the field. Would never lose to Kucherov, MacKinnon, or Draisaitl. It's not going to be a big 5.

And his 100 assists or 64 goals don't look quite as special when Kucherov also hit 100 assists, Matthews hit 69 goals, and MacKinnon is on pace for 105 assists this year.

And then there's the 0 cups ten years in that's still looming in the background.

These threads make for great bumps.

Watch McDavid go off for like 27 points in 10 games now

Hey guys, look! It's this thread again!!!

What is wrong with Mcdavid?

9 points in 7 games. 11 points back of the Ross???

forums.hfboards.com

 

[Video Nasty]

Lmao. Wow so you didn’t watch the series. Barkov DOGWALKED him. That’s what the best defensive forward in the league does.

Yeah, Barkov was really the difference maker when McDavid hit like half a dozen posts in Games 6 and 7.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Yeah, Barkov was really the difference maker when McDavid hit like half a dozen posts in Games 6 and 7.

Man if the Oilers were so bad I guess the Panthers championship wasn't really all that impressive. A default win as it were.

 

[Volica]

He's still the best player on the planet, in a vacuum.
Like if you asked 32 GMs who they want to start a franchise with, it's him.

It just doesn't mean that other guys (like Nathan MacKinnon) can't have exceptional seasons and dethrone him for a year or two at a time here and there.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Yeah, Barkov was really the difference maker when McDavid hit like half a dozen posts in Games 6 and 7.

I seem to recall you always looking down on crosby for finishing third in league scoring b2b years at 27-28 years old. Now mcdavid is on a similar trajectory. You were laughing off the notion that mcdavid may not be sweeping rosses every year. N now look at where we are.

 

[Jordan Belfort]

Imagine being "only" 4th in PPG means you're dusted

It doesn’t, it just means you’re overrated and not the best player in the league.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Nope

 

[crowfish]

I seem to recall you always looking down on crosby for finishing third in league scoring b2b years at 27-28 years old. Now mcdavid is on a similar trajectory. You were laughing off the notion that mcdavid may not be sweeping rosses every year. N now look at where we are.

Save this "dunk" for the 1st season where McDavid is not far and away the best point producer in the NHL without historic empty net stat padding accounted for. The last person to beat his pts/game without ENP was Draisaitl in 2019.

 

[Markham30]

Lol

 

[Cursed Lemon]

It doesn’t, it just means you’re overrated and not the best player in the league.

I guess that time Henrik Sedin beat Sidney Crosby clean for the Art Ross, that meant that Sedin > Crosby right?

 

[Ratsreign]

I dunno but if looks could kill...he doesn't seem too happy that Leon is the top dawg on the oilers these days.
View attachment 957022

His teammates (almost) all kinda look the same way though.

 

[authentic]

In my opinion he never recovered fully his injury before the heritage classic last year. Since he came back for that game he hasn’t shot the puck with any regularity or force and became a pass only player. He passes almost every 2 on 1 he’s on and passes off great shooting opportunities in the slot. He even passes on the f***ing goal now.

So I am fully convinced he has an injury that affects his play and he is too f***ing proud to sit and get right. It’s not really costing the oilers much, but i do feel we would be higher in the standings if he was shooting.

I also wonder if we’ve seen peak McDavid. As someone who has watched almost every game McDavid has played in the NHL he looks off and not right. I am not saying he’s regressing or is a terrible player because clearly he isn’t but he lost a lot of effectiveness in November 2023 that we haven’t seen since with any consistency. My vote is a lagging torso/hip injury that prevents him from being able to shoot and deke like he used to.

If this is all true it’s even more insane how he managed 42 points in the playoffs

He has always been better in the 2nd half. He is still scoring at his career average of 1.50 ppg. That is him just playing average.

He also started the season off with just 10 points in his first 11 games, so his pace since then is around 1.70

 

[iCanada]

Yeah even the best have weeks, months or even entire seasons where their peers have a more impressive run.

That McDavid is seemingly “blah” for himself at the moment and the Oilers are still winning would be pretty encouraging if I’m an Edmonton fan.

And let’s be honest…McDavid is never more than a couple good weeks from being seemingly untouchable. He could easily reel off 25 points in his next dozen games and suddenly look like the obvious choice for all the trophies.

Which about that - he literally has 25 points in his last 15 games, including the 2 against Anaheim and Seattle where he was held pointless.

 

[authentic]

Save this "dunk" for the 1st season where McDavid is not far and away the best point producer in the NHL without historic empty net stat padding accounted for. The last person to beat his pts/game without ENP was Draisaitl in 2019.

Didn’t Matthews when he won the Hart have the best points per game on a goalie as McDavid had 10 empty net points himself? If not it was extremely close between the two anyway.