So with McDavid breaking Gretzky's single season assist record for the playoffs it's time to ask who's most to blame for it. We can narrow it down to the 4 players who had the most defensive responsibilty on their team and who was mainly given the task to stop McDavid and those players were Drew Doughty for the Kings, Quinn Hughes for the Canucks, Miro Heiskanen for the Stars and Alexander Barkov for the Panthers. These 4 players let McDavid assist on 34 goals without stopping him, breaking Gretzky's record of 32 assists.
Case for it being mostly Doughty's fault: Doughty let in 11 assists playing against McDavid, the most of the 4 players. Doughty is also the oldest of the 4 players.
Case against it being mostly Doughty's fault: It's the first round and scoring is always up in the first round. Doughty had the worst supporting cast of the 4 players so he had to do the most heavy lifting of the 4 guys. Doughty is also the only one of the 4 that strikes fear into his opponents, he's big, hairy, toothless and scary just like a defenseman should be.
Case for it being mostly Quinn Hughes' fault: Hughes won the Norris trophy and was supposed to be the man when it comes to defending, despite that he let in 8 assists against McDavid. He also knew McDavid was super hot, which should've motivated him to be on his A game!
Case against it being mostly Quinn Hughes fault: He plays for the Canucks and McDavid usually destroys the Canucks...
Case for it being mostly Miro Heiskanen's fault: Heiskanen had the best team surrounding him with a fantastic top 9 that should've put an end to McDavid's run. Plus that one goal that McDavid scored, it totally looked like Heiskanen was playing defense against his wife's boyfriend.
Case against it being mostly Miro Heiskanen's fault: Heiskanen did let in only 7 assists which is the fewest of the 4 guys...
Case for it being mostly Alexander Barkov's fault: Barkov knew what was about to happen as McDavid came in with 26 assists to the finals. Barkov also just won the Selke trophy, which means that he's supposed to be the best defensive forward in the league. On top of that Barkov got praised to the moon by Wayne Gretzky, which most knew was a way for Wayne to try and pump up Barkov's confidence so that he could do better against McDavid.
Case against it being mostly Alexander Barkov's fault: Barkov had the weakest number 1 defenseman to help him out as Forsling isn't really in the same league as the other 3 guys. Barkov is also built weak and injury prone:
Like you see limited upperbody strenght and look at those twigs that Barkov calls legs. No wonder he couldn't stop McDavid from breaking the assist record...
The real shame here is that all 4 of these guys will make the Hall of fame despite letting something like this happen under their watch. No way McDavid would've broken the assist record if he had to face real men who could play hockey with their elbows like Chris Pronger, Rob Blake, Scott Stevens and Michael Peca.
Case for it being mostly Doughty's fault: Doughty let in 11 assists playing against McDavid, the most of the 4 players. Doughty is also the oldest of the 4 players.
Case against it being mostly Doughty's fault: It's the first round and scoring is always up in the first round. Doughty had the worst supporting cast of the 4 players so he had to do the most heavy lifting of the 4 guys. Doughty is also the only one of the 4 that strikes fear into his opponents, he's big, hairy, toothless and scary just like a defenseman should be.
Case for it being mostly Quinn Hughes' fault: Hughes won the Norris trophy and was supposed to be the man when it comes to defending, despite that he let in 8 assists against McDavid. He also knew McDavid was super hot, which should've motivated him to be on his A game!
Case against it being mostly Quinn Hughes fault: He plays for the Canucks and McDavid usually destroys the Canucks...
Case for it being mostly Miro Heiskanen's fault: Heiskanen had the best team surrounding him with a fantastic top 9 that should've put an end to McDavid's run. Plus that one goal that McDavid scored, it totally looked like Heiskanen was playing defense against his wife's boyfriend.
Case against it being mostly Miro Heiskanen's fault: Heiskanen did let in only 7 assists which is the fewest of the 4 guys...
Case for it being mostly Alexander Barkov's fault: Barkov knew what was about to happen as McDavid came in with 26 assists to the finals. Barkov also just won the Selke trophy, which means that he's supposed to be the best defensive forward in the league. On top of that Barkov got praised to the moon by Wayne Gretzky, which most knew was a way for Wayne to try and pump up Barkov's confidence so that he could do better against McDavid.
Case against it being mostly Alexander Barkov's fault: Barkov had the weakest number 1 defenseman to help him out as Forsling isn't really in the same league as the other 3 guys. Barkov is also built weak and injury prone:
Like you see limited upperbody strenght and look at those twigs that Barkov calls legs. No wonder he couldn't stop McDavid from breaking the assist record...
The real shame here is that all 4 of these guys will make the Hall of fame despite letting something like this happen under their watch. No way McDavid would've broken the assist record if he had to face real men who could play hockey with their elbows like Chris Pronger, Rob Blake, Scott Stevens and Michael Peca.
