Player Discussion McDavid

[Fourier]

It's bonkers to think that McDavid has more PP points in a season compared to Gretzky for Edmonton, at a time when teams got between 1 and 2 LESS power plays than when Gretzky was putting up 200 point seasons.

Definitely before my time but figured he'd have gobbled up points on the power play just as prolifically. I assume on some level there's some power play strategy differences?

The Oilers pp was pretty deadly by the standards of the day but not even close to level it has been at over the last few years. During Gretzky's time with the Oilers they averaged 23.5% on the pp. Only in 82-83 were they close to the present day numbers with a 29.3% rate. That said Gretzky does have 4 of the top 5 pp point totals for the Oilers in a single season and 7 of the top 11.

The current pp is insanely good and incredibly dynamic. McDavid, Leon and Nuge are quite possibly the best pp trio ever to play together. They work exceptionally well off of one another and all three play an important role.

Even the NHL players showed their jealousy by voting Matthews as the best player in the league last year. McDavid has been the best player in the world since his second year in the NHL, AINEC.

IForm the players perspective I suspect that its not really jealousy so much as human nature. There has always been a tendency to hold outliers like McDavid to a different standard.

 

[McJadeddog]

McDavid was absolutely robbed of the Hart last season and everyone knows it as well. he def came in with a purpose this year and you can thank the media and the other homer people who voted for Matthews. lol

Yeah, pretty much everybody acknowledges how ridiculous it was last year. It is a standing joke to just refer to Matthews as "Hart" in my buddy/sports chat. Simply ridiculous that it happened, but we are talking the NHL reporters, who are almost uniformly uninformed so....

 

[5 14 6 1]

God are we lucky to have this guy. Best season since Lemieux unfolding before our eyes

 

[Paralyzer]

I think it's safe to say McDavid has the Art Ross, Rocket Richard, Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay, and maybe more this year. He's just been phenomenal.

 

[Fourier]

I think it's safe to say McDavid has the Art Ross, Rocket Richard, Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay, and maybe more this year. He's just been phenomenal.

If he didn't play another game this year I would see him as a 99% lock to win the Art Ross, 90% chance to win the Richard, 98% chance for the Lindsay and unfortunately a far less than 90% chance to win the Hart. If he plays it out even the writers can't be that stupid though.

 

[ujju2]

The Oilers pp was pretty deadly by the standards of the day but not even close to level it has been at over the last few years. During Gretzky's time with the Oilers they averaged 23.5% on the pp. Only in 82-83 were they close to the present day numbers with a 29.3% rate. That said Gretzky does have 4 of the top 5 pp point totals for the Oilers in a single season and 7 of the top 11.

The current pp is insanely good and incredibly dynamic. McDavid, Leon and Nuge are quite possibly the best pp trio ever to play together. They work exceptionally well off of one another and all three play an important role.


IForm the players perspective I suspect that its not really jealousy so much as human nature. There has always been a tendency to hold outliers like McDavid to a different standard.

Yup. Only trio I can think of in recent history that even comes sort of close is Ovi-Backstrom-Carlson/Oshie/Kuznetsov.

 

[McJadeddog]

If he didn't play another game this year I would see him as a 99% lock to win the Art Ross, 90% chance to win the Richard, 98% chance for the Lindsay and unfortunately a far less than 90% chance to win the Hart. If he plays it out even the writers can't be that stupid though.

haha, you sure about that? These are the same people that didn't know what position Ovi played remember.

 

[The Nuge]

He knew he was the real Hart winner last season. The media just tries to find any excuse to vote for a non dominant player. He'll score more then 60 this year just to prove a point.

Ya I don’t understand this idea of voting for a player who wasn’t the best simple because they had a better year than normal. Just like it makes no sense that Bergeron only won 1 of the last 5 Selke trophies.

Even the NHL players showed their jealousy by voting Matthews as the best player in the league last year. McDavid has been the best player in the world since his second year in the NHL, AINEC.

That’s the one that confused me. The Hart, ok. I don’t agree with it, but it’s most valuable to their team so you can argue it I guess. The Lindsay though? Matthews was in absolutely no way the league’s most outstanding player. He was arguably like 6th last year

 

[Harry Curry]

If he didn't play another game this year I would see him as a 99% lock to win the Art Ross, 90% chance to win the Richard, 98% chance for the Lindsay and unfortunately a far less than 90% chance to win the Hart. If he plays it out even the writers can't be that stupid though.

I will be shocked if McDavid wins the Hart unanimously. He should without question. I feel there will be at least one jerk member of the PHWA who not only votes for Pastrnak, but makes their ballot public. Too easy to resist the call of the massive attention doing so would bring.

 

[Tarus]

I will be shocked if McDavid wins the Hart unanimously. He should without question. I feel there will be at least one jerk member of the PHWA who not only votes for Pastrnak, but makes their ballot public. Too easy to resist the call of the massive attention doing so would bring.

Already posted this, but since you mentioned Pasta

NHL Awards Watch: Connor McDavid not a unanimous pick for MVP

After polling a sample of voters, there is some debate as to this season's MVP. Plus, intel on all the other major awards races, as the post-deadline stretch begins.

www.espn.com

relevant quote

"Pasta is on pace for 57 goals, which would be the most in franchise history by any player not named Phil Esposito," one voter said. "He had no reason to accept the Boston discount."

Also guys who voted for Tage Thompson and Rantaanan

 

[North Cole]

I will be shocked if McDavid wins the Hart unanimously. He should without question. I feel there will be at least one jerk member of the PHWA who not only votes for Pastrnak, but makes their ballot public. Too easy to resist the call of the massive attention doing so would bring.

I think it's less the idea that they want to vote for random nonsense and more the mental block they would have making him the only player in NHL history to win two unanimous MVP. It took him having a Space Jam season to join the unanimous club with 99, and that was also in the middle of the Pandemic where feel good stories were hard to come by.

Now that things have returned to "normal" and he's hitting the same-ish level as the Pandemic (albiet vs the whole league), I think folks are going to have trouble going back to that well and signing off on putting him that class on his own above 99.

 

[Stoneman89]

I think it's safe to say McDavid has the Art Ross, Rocket Richard, Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay, and maybe more this year. He's just been phenomenal.

Arguably should be in the Selke running this year too. His very presence on the PK is enough to have teams back off.

 

[Stoneman89]

Yeah, pretty much everybody acknowledges how ridiculous it was last year. It is a standing joke to just refer to Matthews as "Hart" in my buddy/sports chat. Simply ridiculous that it happened, but we are talking the NHL reporters, who are almost uniformly uninformed so....

Nostrils only won last year because some voters were tired of McDavid always winning and decided to give some guy the award that had a huge outlier season. McDavid was twice the player Matthews was last year, and this year, probably 3 times.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Nostrils only won last year because some voters were tired of McDavid always winning and decided to give some guy the award that had a huge outlier season. McDavid was twice the player Matthews was last year, and this year, probably 3 times.

That and he had the only 60 goal season in league history, as I understood it from coverage of it.

 

[Arpeggio]

Matthews won because of 50 goals in 50 games. You can debate whether that was actually a valid reason, but the novelty of that accomplishment is definitely why he won. I mean I was shocked when he did that, I never thought I'd see 50 in 50 again.

 

[Fourier]

Already posted this, but since you mentioned Pasta

NHL Awards Watch: Connor McDavid not a unanimous pick for MVP

After polling a sample of voters, there is some debate as to this season's MVP. Plus, intel on all the other major awards races, as the post-deadline stretch begins.

www.espn.com

relevant quote



Also guys who voted for Tage Thompson and Rantaanan

And the quote I liked was this one. Imagine Pasta having to carry such a terrible team all on his back.

While McDavid's 26-point gap to the Oilers' next-highest scorer (Leon Draisaitl) is incredible, Pastrnak is up 30 points over the second-best scorer on the Bruins (Brad Marchand).

I also think that the Calder this year should have two goalies in the final three at least. It's just not a great year for forwards. Yet we have this below. (Do any of these guys actually watch hockey?? Skinner may well end up in the top 12 all time for wins by a rookie goalie. He is already at 22. )

The goalies who were once in this conversation no longer warrant a mention," a voter concluded. "I can't remember being this underwhelmed by an NHL rookie class [of goalies].

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Matthews won because of 50 goals in 50 games. You can debate whether that was actually a valid reason, but the novelty of that accomplishment is definitely why he won. I mean I was shocked when he did that, I never thought I'd see 50 in 50 again.

? When did he do that, by my loose count he had 38 in 50. Or is this just a bit I missed?

 

[Kerberos]

? When did he do that, by my loose count he had 38 in 50. Or is this just a bit I missed?

He scored 51 in 50 games (Nov 24th - Apr 9th) technically but not in the traditional sense which is measured from the beginning of a season.

 

[Arpeggio]

He scored 51 in 50 games (Nov 12th - Apr 24th) technically but not in the traditional sense which is measured from the beginning of a season.

Yeah but he's still the first guy to do it in decades right? It's impressive for sure.

 

[Mr Positive]

Matthews won because of 50 goals in 50 games. You can debate whether that was actually a valid reason, but the novelty of that accomplishment is definitely why he won. I mean I was shocked when he did that, I never thought I'd see 50 in 50 again.

It is a narrative award. Also it's cute how nowadays we treat the Hart by its definition with that "most important to his team" nonsense. It was always an MVP award.

And yes, even with McDavid's lower production last year all you would have to do is watch the game to see how superior he was to everyone in the league. The narrative angle always looks awful in hindsight, even when someone as good as Matthews wins it. Would spreading out the Norris been better than giving it to Lidstrom all those years? Was there a better narrative? Lol

 

[Da McBomb]

Would love if McDavid could hit 70 goals... and smash Matthew's total of 60 goals last year. Even Matthews fans can't even argue that Matthews is a better goal scorer than McDavid anymore, which was the only thing they could argue in favor of Matthews in the past.

 

[McShogun99]

There's really no one else this year that should be in the running for the Hart. Any media member that gives a 1st place vote to anyone else is just some jack ass that thinks they're smarter then everyone else.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

There's really no one else this year that should be in the running for the Hart. Any media member that gives a 1st place vote to anyone else is just some jack ass that thinks they're smarter then everyone else.

You must not be aware of who votes on these awards because they absolutely do think they are smarter than everyone else.

 

[KCC]

Yeah, pretty much everybody acknowledges how ridiculous it was last year. It is a standing joke to just refer to Matthews as "Hart" in my buddy/sports chat. Simply ridiculous that it happened, but we are talking the NHL reporters, who are almost uniformly uninformed so....

At least more and more people are finally opening their eyes that Marner is the heart beat of the team and not Matthews. lol

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

He scored 51 in 50 games (Nov 24th - Apr 9th) technically but not in the traditional sense which is measured from the beginning of a season.

Ah, lol. Another NHL first ever... probably