That's irrelevant to this year. Surely you realize that numerous teams go up and down the standings each season, sometimes unpredictably. Also, being "top 10 in the standings" doesn't necessarily mean it's harder to score against you.
Even if that argument were relevant, which it isn't, you have to also factor in which teams were weakest, and which teams were easiest to score against last year. (That is, if your point about last year was relevant to this year, which it isn't.)
Finally, here's how McDavid did last season against the top-10 teams: 28 points /16 games = 1.75 points per game (i.e., higher than he scored vs. the bottom 20 teams).
Yes, teams go up and down in the standings but, where a team finished in the previous year is usually a good indicator of how good they are. Most of the top teams from last year are still top teams this year.
In terms of the hardest to score against, there's only 1 team from the North in the top 10 (Winnipeg - 10th). Edmonton was the 2nd hardest team to score against from the North, and they were 15th best in the NHL. The other 5 teams in the North were below average at best, with Ottawa being the 2nd worst in the NHL.
As for McDavid, what was his overall PPG last year? What he did in 16 games means very little compared to what he did in 64.
This is also (mostly) irrelevant, as players don't face individual goalies, they face teams. As of a day ago, the NHL's total save percentage was .904, and the North division's was .903. So, yeah, what a huge difference from League average!!
Of the 8 lowest save percentage teams, one is in the North division.
Oh yes, SOMETHING MUST BE GOING ON if 4 already-elite players among seven clubs are each having great seasons!! Why, I bet that's never happened in League history when all the teams played one another!!
Yes, they face teams and not just goalies. But, only one of the North teams was good defensively last year, and none of the goalies are having good seasons. Which teams in the North are hard to score against? It's great that their goalies aren't all bottom 10, but the plethora of mediocre goalies in the North doesn't bring up the overall quality very much.
And yet...
Johnny Gaudreau is having his worst season.
McDavid's teammates (and sometimes linemates) like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kailer Yamamoto are having worse seasons than last year.
Elias Pettersson is having his worst season.
Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler are having worse seasons than last year.
(Mitch Marner, btw, is only scoring 0.10 PPG better than two seasons ago, which is exactly what you'd expect when his team is doing better than then.)
I mean, really, people. This line of thinking needs to end.
Gaudreau struggled last year too. This is a continuation of his decline, not a new development.
RNH is right around his career average PPG. Last year was more of the anomaly than this year.
Yamamoto played 27 games last year. There were always questions about whether he could repeat that.
Pettersson is in his third NHL season, and his team has struggled with COVID.
The Jets are significantly worse than they were last year. Connor is only in his 4th full NHL season, and is still putting up his 2nd best PPG rate, and Wheeler is scoring at his career average 0.82 PPG. Wheeler is also 34 years old, so a decline isn't unexpected.
And, just to be clear, I'm not saying the top players in the North wouldn't still be very good. But, I definitely question if some of these top guys have a few points that they wouldn't otherwise have in a normal season.[/QUOTE]