Player Discussion McDavid

[Drivesaitl]

McDavid is losing a bit of traction lately on the generational best tag. With players like Gretz they lead the scoring race every year in prime and usually by miles.

This season and last McD has fallen off the pace. He's not even close to Mackinnon combined. McDavid in 3rd place combined pts over last 2 seasons. Behind even Kuch.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

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For one season you can view it as a blip. When it stretches a season and a half it starts to be something else. McD isn't even best player on his team now. Didn't think I'd be saying that this season.

The reality for McD and Drai is they eat a lot of punishment and neither shy away from it. But Drai is built up more to withstand it. Could be possible that in the swansong of the players Drai is better because so much of his game is Cerebral. But Drai has also been more dynamic this season. Creating so much.

When you factor in that McD has much more prolific linemates McD should be way ahead of Drai in production.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

McDavid is losing a bit of traction lately on the generational best tag. With players like Gretz they lead the scoring race every year in prime and usually by miles.

This season and last McD has fallen off the pace. He's not even close to Mackinnon combined. McDavid in 3rd place combined pts over last 2 seasons. Behind even Kuch.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

For one season you can view it as a blip. When it stretches a season and a half it starts to be something else. McD isn't even best player on his team now. Didn't think I'd be saying that this season.

The reality for McD and Drai is they eat a lot of punishment and neither shy away from it. But Drai is built up more to withstand it. Could be possible that in the swansong of the players Drai is better because so much of his game is Cerebral. But Drai has also been more dynamic this season. Creating so much.

When you factor in that McD has much more prolific linemates McD should be way ahead of Drai in production.

This isn't a year and a half stretch

McDavid winning the Conn Smythe in the 2024 playoffs should tell you he's still at the top of his game

I think he's nursing a slight injury

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

He just does not shoot. He's an excellent passer but too often he's looking off prime scoring opportunities to feed someone else. It's maddening in some games.

 

[McFlash97]

McDavid has no confidence in his shots anymore. He's losing that goal scoring touch , even when he was popping 40 goals a year. You could see the accuracy and placement of his shots. Right now it looks like an Arvidsson shot. He aims at pads and chests. He needs to get a shooting coach this off-season. Even his ability to dangle goaltenders has disappeared. A player this talented should not be sitting at 15 goals this late into a season.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

McDavid is losing a bit of traction lately on the generational best tag. With players like Gretz they lead the scoring race every year in prime and usually by miles.

This season and last McD has fallen off the pace. He's not even close to Mackinnon combined. McDavid in 3rd place combined pts over last 2 seasons. Behind even Kuch.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

For one season you can view it as a blip. When it stretches a season and a half it starts to be something else. McD isn't even best player on his team now. Didn't think I'd be saying that this season.

The reality for McD and Drai is they eat a lot of punishment and neither shy away from it. But Drai is built up more to withstand it. Could be possible that in the swansong of the players Drai is better because so much of his game is Cerebral. But Drai has also been more dynamic this season. Creating so much.

When you factor in that McD has much more prolific linemates McD should be way ahead of Drai in production.

Im sure Mackinnon's 12 empty net points this year isnt helping him stretch the gap or anything.

Mackinnon also has 21 secondary assists.

More luck than anything that hes that far ahead.

 

[Mez]

I could be many things. One possibility is that he isnt giving 100% as often until the games matter. He has won every major trophy short of the Selke...He only cares about the cup now.
On the flip side you have MacKinnon, he got his cup, now he wants the personal trophies that he doesn't have. Which makes sense to me as that's been held against him.

 

[5 14 6 1]

He could have scored 3 goals last game. He's fine.

 

[tiger_80]

McDavid is losing a bit of traction lately on the generational best tag. With players like Gretz they lead the scoring race every year in prime and usually by miles.

This season and last McD has fallen off the pace. He's not even close to Mackinnon combined. McDavid in 3rd place combined pts over last 2 seasons. Behind even Kuch.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

For one season you can view it as a blip. When it stretches a season and a half it starts to be something else. McD isn't even best player on his team now. Didn't think I'd be saying that this season.

The reality for McD and Drai is they eat a lot of punishment and neither shy away from it. But Drai is built up more to withstand it. Could be possible that in the swansong of the players Drai is better because so much of his game is Cerebral. But Drai has also been more dynamic this season. Creating so much.

When you factor in that McD has much more prolific linemates McD should be way ahead of Drai in production.

He's still the best player of this generation. I'd rank him above Crosby and Ovechkin individually.

 

[Stoneman89]

McDavid is losing a bit of traction lately on the generational best tag. With players like Gretz they lead the scoring race every year in prime and usually by miles.

This season and last McD has fallen off the pace. He's not even close to Mackinnon combined. McDavid in 3rd place combined pts over last 2 seasons. Behind even Kuch.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

For one season you can view it as a blip. When it stretches a season and a half it starts to be something else. McD isn't even best player on his team now. Didn't think I'd be saying that this season.

The reality for McD and Drai is they eat a lot of punishment and neither shy away from it. But Drai is built up more to withstand it. Could be possible that in the swansong of the players Drai is better because so much of his game is Cerebral. But Drai has also been more dynamic this season. Creating so much.

When you factor in that McD has much more prolific linemates McD should be way ahead of Drai in production.

McDavid hasn't had great linemates for a lot of the year either. Hyman and Nuge did absolutely nothing for 20 games, and beside a little burp from Nuge the last few games, he also now has your favourite, Connor Brown, who can't put the puck in the ocean. He's made numerous setups that have been messed up. He has been stuck with linemates who aren't getting the job done in terms of converting his chances. Poor McDavid. Always McDavid.

 

[AM]

McDavid is losing a bit of traction lately on the generational best tag. With players like Gretz they lead the scoring race every year in prime and usually by miles.

This season and last McD has fallen off the pace. He's not even close to Mackinnon combined. McDavid in 3rd place combined pts over last 2 seasons. Behind even Kuch.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

For one season you can view it as a blip. When it stretches a season and a half it starts to be something else. McD isn't even best player on his team now. Didn't think I'd be saying that this season.

The reality for McD and Drai is they eat a lot of punishment and neither shy away from it. But Drai is built up more to withstand it. Could be possible that in the swansong of the players Drai is better because so much of his game is Cerebral. But Drai has also been more dynamic this season. Creating so much.

When you factor in that McD has much more prolific linemates McD should joke be way ahead of Drai in production.

Joke right?

 

[TheNumber4]

I think McDavid has looked pretty darn spectacular for parts of this season.

Take the Cup Heartbreak and Hangover portion of the season out, and that injury out and he’s probably right there with MacK and Drai at the top of the League again.

Going pointless in back to back games, with a new look line, and a frankly a bit of bad puck luck, shouldn’t sound the alarm bells.

That said, we’ve discussed his shooting for a long while now and it’s an issue that seems to persist. The sniping aspect of his game is still missing from his Rocket year. I still think part of it are team defences and goalies scouting that aspect of his game. His bread and butter during the rocket season was speeding in and stopping up, to surprise with a wrister through a D-man’s feet catching goalies off guard. I think teams know to expect that now from him. And then repeated fails in pulling off that shot after it has been scouted, has lowered his confidence in using it and confidence in executing that shot.

To my knowledge, it’s never been really confirmed he’s dealing with a wrist issue or something upper body that could be affecting his shooting. That said, his max top speed shot from his rocket year to the subsequent years has lowered. But since it’s just a max shot reading and not an average, I don’t know how much can be read into that.

 

[AM]

McDavid hasn't had great linemates for a lot of the year either. Hyman and Nuge did absolutely nothing for 20 games, and beside a little burp from Nuge the last few games, he also now has your favourite, Connor Brown, who can't put the puck in the ocean. He's made numerous setups that have been messed up. He has been stuck with linemates who aren't getting the job done in terms of converting his chances. Poor McDavid. Always McDavid.

Not really. They are doing better than last year.

Point is, it’s a team game.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Joke right?

Was just approaching it in comparison with Gretz who was always producing in a different realm from contemporary mortals. But even in comparison to McD seasons these are not his best.

 

[Drivesaitl]

McDavid has no confidence in his shots anymore. He's losing that goal scoring touch , even when he was popping 40 goals a year. You could see the accuracy and placement of his shots. Right now it looks like an Arvidsson shot. He aims at pads and chests. He needs to get a shooting coach this off-season. Even his ability to dangle goaltenders has disappeared. A player this talented should not be sitting at 15 goals this late into a season.

Last game Oilers have a 3-2 rush that looks dangerous. They pass the puck to a McD attempt to shoot it off the goalies ear because its worked a couple times. The decisioning on plays is just not great on top line. Hasn't been for awhile. Passing off opportunities, shooting on worse. Its odd. How can a guy that scored 64 now have this much difficulty scoring?

 

[Spawn]

Fun fact, McDavid still leads the league in points/game when the other team's goalie is still in the net.

 

[TB12]

I worry about a lot of things in life: work, the weather, my golf game, my family, etc. I never ever ever worry about Connor McDavid. He's one of the GOATS and has proven it time and time again. I will always give him the benefit of the doubt, even when he goes, *checks notes* 2 games without a point.

He's so f***ing good and the standards for him are so high. He will be just fine.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

Imagine being on a 123+ point pace for the 5th year in a row (still more points than Crosby ever achieved in a season by the way) and being called out.
Wow.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

I worry about a lot of things in life: work, the weather, my golf game, my family, etc. I never ever ever worry about Connor McDavid. He's one of the GOATS and has proven it time and time again. I will always give him the benefit of the doubt, even when he goes, *checks notes* 2 games without a point.

He's so f***ing good and the standards for him are so high. He will be just fine.

I find it funny people are telling literally the best player on the planet what he should do.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I find it funny people are telling literally the best player on the planet what he should do.

No one is perfect nor a perfect player. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Connor's biggest weakness is overpassing at times. He is in one of those phases as we speak.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

No one is perfect nor a perfect player. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Connor's biggest weakness is overpassing at times. He is in one of those phases as we speak.

Look I get average Joe’s critiquing elites is a part of pro sports but the best player on earth?

He’s about as close to perfect as it gets.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Look I get average Joe’s critiquing elites is a part of pro sports but the best player on earth?

He’s about as close to perfect as it gets.

He's not playing like the clear cut best player on Earth this season nor did he last regular season. So when you have a generational player that did what he did a few seasons ago (60+ goals) and then see what he's done this season and last is he really immune from critique? Critique is in the nature of his business. I personally feel that he has health issues going on because he isn't looking himself and even as great as Drai has been this season, when Connor is at his best he's on another level from everyone else in the league.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

He's not playing like the clear cut best player on Earth this season nor did he last regular season. So when you have a generational player that did what he did a few seasons ago (60+ goals) and then see what he's done this season and last is he really immune from critique? Critique is in the nature of his business. I personally feel that he has health issues going on because he isn't looking himself and even as great as Drai has been this season, when Connor is at his best he's on another level from everyone else in the league.

Was still one of the top players in the league last season and then won the conn smythe in a losing effort. Still very clearly the best player on the planet. Being only 4th in points per game half way through this season doesn’t put that into question imo.

 

[McJadeddog]

I could be many things. One possibility is that he isnt giving 100% as often until the games matter. He has won every major trophy short of the Selke...He only cares about the cup now.
On the flip side you have MacKinnon, he got his cup, now he wants the personal trophies that he doesn't have. Which makes sense to me as that's been held against him.

Yeah, I think he is doing what he needs to do to stay healthy for the playoffs. The team will make the playoffs, but I don't think McDavid is killing himself to break records or win trophies in the regular season anymore.

 

[iCanada]

Fun fact, McDavid still leads the league in points/game when the other team's goalie is still in the net.

MacKinnon is currently on pace to score 26 points on empty nets.

To put that into perspective - Gretzky had 84 empty net points in his career.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Imagine being on a 123+ point pace for the 5th year in a row (still more points than Crosby ever achieved in a season by the way) and being called out.
Wow.

Imagine chiming in to manufacture what nobody said. Theres no panic, Theres no calling out. These are just comments in time about McD in prime age producing less than he has in best years. Crosby isn't really comparable as he was an outscorer. Not necessarily the best producer. The other thing is Crosby played peak years at a time in NHL that was more dead puck than now.