Nikita Kucherov is the clear favorite for the Art Ross Trophy

[Coffey]

McDavid career PPTOI/GP 3:30
Kucherov career PPTOI/GP 3:19

But because Kuch has more this year that's a problem?

No it explains why he’s winning over McDavid this year. Who gives a f*** about career lol

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

No it explains why he’s winning over McDavid this year. Who gives a f*** about career lol

The excuses are just getting awful.

 

[EmptyNetAssassin]

McKucherov is winning because everyone loves Kuche rov

 

[Coffey]

The excuses are just getting awful.

No excuse. Just facts you refuse to admit. Denying reality.

 

[Video Nasty]

99 assists for McDavid, which is the 14th most in a season all-time.

Also, the first back to back 130+ point campaigns for a player since Lemieux in 1991-1992 and 1992-1993.

 

[BusQuets]

99 assists for McDavid, which is the 14th most in a season all-time.

Also, the first back to back 130+ point campaigns for a player since Lemieux in 1991-1992 and 1992-1993.

Yet still going to lose to Kucherov.

 

[Mikeaveli]

Mcdavid posted two secondary PP assists

 

[Senor Catface]

There are 100 times more posts complaining about people claiming Kucherov is disliked or unpopular, opposed to actual posts saying it.

It's like a white noise loop.

 

[Crosby2010]

You have to hand it to Kuch. He has stayed the course and has picked the right time for a heater of a streak. We talk about McDavid's 100 assist season potentially, well, we might have to talk about Kucherov's 100 assist season too.

Look, I like Kuch. I thought his criticism of Montreal was comical when they won the Cup. Like it or not, it was candid, he was.............feeling no pain at the time let's say, and that might not have won him points with the media, nor did the lacklustre All-Star skills performance, but he is likely to win an award this year that no one votes on and that he is in complete control of right now. Unless somehow McDavid strings together 2 PPG the rest of the season while Kucherov only gets 1 PPG. Because that is literally the only way Kucherov can lose the Art Ross at this moment is if McDavid scores 1.0 PPG more than him the remaining 5-6 games.

 

[Signupnow]

Sounds like people are looking for by excuse here.

Most fans don't buy into what you are selling.

Makes sense. Mostly Canadians here. But if you been here a while and don't have memory like a goldfish the Canadians are always quick to crown their homeboy over others countries players. Makar was after his first season better than lidstrom. Subban better than Karlsson and so was peitrangelo and the rest of the lot that had one good year.

 

[Chet Manley]

Nope. Im a fan of Ovie. Was a huge fan of Pavel Bure, fan of Kovalchuk and Federov. Kuch is just a punk and thats why he gets hate.

Im Canadian and I despise McDavid. Little positive emotion, virtue signaler, zombie etc

I hope McDavid and Kuch lose to Nate

WTF are you talking about?

 

[Sky04]

No it explains why he’s winning over McDavid this year. Who gives a f*** about career lol

No it means McDavid sucks generating on the PP this year.

 

[Acallabeth]

No it explains why he’s winning over McDavid this year. Who gives a f*** about career lol

He's winning over McDavid because he has been better this year, that's it.
And higher PP time signals that his team has relied on him more as well.

 

[Calderon]

Well I hope McDavid doesn't win, because of him I'm dying inside and yet another Ross win for him will torment me even more.

It's bad enough he's better than my beloved Crosby ever has been, and I'm still trying to reconcile that.

McDavid not winning the Ross will help me sleep better maybe for a couple nights. I need that.

Wholesome

 

[daver]

No it explains why he’s winning over McDavid this year. Who gives a f*** about career lol

Because, according to your logic, it explains why McDavid won in other years.

 

[Dust]

You have to hand it to Kuch. He has stayed the course and has picked the right time for a heater of a streak. We talk about McDavid's 100 assist season potentially, well, we might have to talk about Kucherov's 100 assist season too.

Look, I like Kuch. I thought his criticism of Montreal was comical when they won the Cup. Like it or not, it was candid, he was.............feeling no pain at the time let's say, and that might not have won him points with the media, nor did the lacklustre All-Star skills performance, but he is likely to win an award this year that no one votes on and that he is in complete control of right now. Unless somehow McDavid strings together 2 PPG the rest of the season while Kucherov only gets 1 PPG. Because that is literally the only way Kucherov can lose the Art Ross at this moment is if McDavid scores 1.0 PPG more than him the remaining 5-6 games.

He's on pace to end up with 2 more points than McDavid and Mackinnon. With how great of a season everyone is having, this is still wide open. I wouldn't be surprised if any of Kuch, Mack, or McD won it. All are capable and have shown they can easily pop a 5 point night at any time.

 

[TopShelfYzerman]

Eh I'm not the one making that argument. The league goes through trends on where the stars get put but for the last ~35ish years it's been largely in the middle. Go through the O6 though and most of the stars were put at the wing (probably true from the advent of the forward pass, honestly). I think Kucherov's skillset is more unique than MacKinnon's - just because high-end playmaking wingers are relatively rare, but that's just a curiousity and not anything about their abilities or value.

But that gets to another point - there's a lot of arguments that Cs are more valuable than Wingers. I've always found that as a convenient aphorism, but thinking that it applies to clear outliers (like Kucherov) is stinkin thinkin. The C/W defense dynamic hasn't been true for at least 15 years - almost every team applies some variety of F1 F2 F3 in the D zone. Additionally - McDavid or MacKinnon having "more defensive responsibilities" is... god damn use your brains people no one is tasking either of those guys to shut anyone down. But even taking the D zone argument out of it, that statement is generally true (but not true in every case) because it is easier to make plays from the center position. You have both sides of the ice to work with, you're often the most talented player on your line, and wingers *tend* to be more goal scoring oriented than Cs. But those general truths go out the window the second you run your offense through a winger instead of a C.

I just get a *little* frustrated at the "well he's a C so that's a better position" when talking about the elite talent in the league. It's incredibly lazy thinking when these guys (Kucherov, Panarin, used to be Kane) are clearly driving the play in a way that's normally reserved for a C, but from the wing.

It would be interesting to find the stats between centers and wingers touching the puck on average. Centers obviously touch the puck more, therefore influence the play more than wingers do, but by how much?

Just another factor that would just convolute the race between wingers vs centers,

 

[KaN19]

He's on pace to end up with 2 more points than McDavid and Mackinnon. With how great of a season everyone is having, this is still wide open. I wouldn't be surprised if any of Kuch, Mack, or McD won it. All are capable and have shown they can easily pop a 5 point night at any time.

MacKinnon is the third wheel of the race at this point. Avs' strength of schedule is quite significantly harder than the Oilers' or Lightning's. Not to mention McDavid is quite easily the better player and is more prone to going on insane heaters.

Going to be fun to see whether McDavid can chase down Kucherov. And MacKinnon isn't getting his pity Hart trophy either.

 

[Plastic Joseph]

MacKinnon is the third wheel of the race at this point. Avs' strength of schedule is quite significantly harder than the Oilers' or Lightning's. Not to mention McDavid is quite easily the better player and is more prone to going on insane heaters.

Going to be fun to see whether McDavid can chase down Kucherov. And MacKinnon isn't getting his pity Hart trophy either.

I don't think mcdavid can win the hart , even if he wins the AR somehow, he has too few goals.

Mackinnon has 17 more goals than mcdavid and essentially the same pt production.

Mack can still easily go hot. If he ends up with 3-5 fewer pts than kuch but has 7 or 8 more goals, it will be very close. The fact he has a tough schedule would work in his favor if he popped off the next 5 games.

We just gotta wait and see.
None of these 3 would be a pity mvp, they could all put up 140

 

[RussianGuyovich]

There are like a 100 times more posts people saying Kucherov is disliked or unpopular, opposed to actual posts saying it.

It's like a white noise loop.

Oh, kucherov is very popular. Just for different reasons

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

So i haven't read through this , is it unanimously accepted here that Kuch is the MVP this year , regardless of art ross or not.

Seems pretty obvious

 

[ohcomeonref]

Makes sense. Mostly Canadians here. But if you been here a while and don't have memory like a goldfish the Canadians are always quick to crown their homeboy over others countries players. Makar was after his first season better than lidstrom. Subban better than Karlsson and so was peitrangelo and the rest of the lot that had one good year.

This sort of weird-ass player nationalism doesn't really exist for the average Canadian hockey fan. The only time Canadians specifically care about Canadian players is when they're playing for Team Canada. Your post is pure projection.

 

[The Macho King]

Betting sites have MacKinnon as the favorite for the Hart. Don't know if the last two weeks will change the narrative has been baked for awhile.

 

[Zybalto]

Betting sites have MacKinnon as the favorite for the Hart. Don't know if the last two weeks will change the narrative has been baked for awhile.

"He's due" is always a strong force in these things. Matthews hitting 70, Kucherov winning the AR comfortably or McDavid going on a crazy heater to end the season could make a massive difference though.

Gonna be a fun end to the season.

 

[GoldenKnight]

Yes, MacKinnon is winning the Hart Trophy this year. It will be well deserved.