Nikita Kucherov is the clear favorite for the Art Ross Trophy

[The Panther]

So, chill out on the "tear down" BS to build up "my guy".

What are you talking about here?

 

[TheStatican]

All fans are anticipating McDavid's achievement of 100 assists as the hugest record to be broken this season.

Kuch: hold my beer

It's not a record and 70 seems to be the more anticipated milestone.

 

[Jauffre]

It's not a record and 70 seems to be the more anticipated milestone.

It does because GOALS and I get it. Personally, being in the 100+ assist list containing only Gretz, Lemieux and Orr means more than being in the 70+ goal club alongside like 9 other guys. But there's a good argument both ways. 70 goals is an incredible feat.

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

Pretty crazy Kucherov has 53 more points than the next guy on his team

Next 2 big gaps are Pasta & Panarin at 41 ahead of the next guy

 

[Sky04]

It's not a record and 70 seems to be the more anticipated milestone.

It really isn't unless you live in Toronto, Matthew's is an afterthought this season.

 

[DFC]

As McDavid is out of the scoring race now, I think I can guess how this is going to shake down:

-- Rocket = Matthews (duh)
-- Art Ross = Kucherov
-- Hart = MacKinnon

That seems reasonable, in the sense that everyone (except McDavid) gets something good.

Not sure about the Lindsay award. I don't really care about it.

Lindsay could easily go to McDavid.

 

[User9992]

Lindsay could easily go to McDavid.

Kuch should get Hart imo!

Award is called 'MVP' after all.

 

[Cup or Bust]

how?

how do the avs make the playoffs without mack with this still happening:

with ryan johansen as the no.1 center in his absence

with nuke taking a leave of absence

with girard taking a leave of absence

with georgiev letting in 4 goals a game in 40% of his starts

landeskog injured the full year

drouin as a gamble, lekhonen injured for months.

Rantanen and Makar cannot overcome any of this by themselves so this argument isn't valid

You take Mackinnon off the Avs and that team should be near the bottom of the league this season with all the injuires and players missing games. The only example recently I can think of where a team with a worse top 6 forward group and goaltending have had as good regular season is a few seasons when the Oilers basically depended on McDavid and Draisaitl almost exclusively to win them games.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Fails to make point, decides to become obnoxious instead.

It’s certainly a big endorsement from his coach, no?

 

[Bob and 200 others]

It’s certainly a big endorsement from his coach, no?

It's a shootout in an entirely irrelevant game at the end of the season. If you think that's some indictment of Kuch that says more about your weird childish need to tear down one player to build up your own. How old are you? You sound like a stunted adolescent

 

[Stammertime91]

It’s certainly a big endorsement from his coach, no?

"Daft reply"

 

[Zwui21]

I find it so bizarre how the media seems to avoid covering Kucherov's insane season compared to McDavid and MacKinnon. He's literally cementing himself as the best playmaking winger of all time with this season, yet it doesn't seem to gather much interest from them.
I get he's not the media darling at all, but c'mon.

 

[Rschmitz]

It’s certainly a big endorsement from his coach, no?

you're asking the same question again

 

[bobholly39]

As McDavid is out of the scoring race now, I think I can guess how this is going to shake down:

-- Rocket = Matthews (duh)
-- Art Ross = Kucherov
-- Hart = MacKinnon

That seems reasonable, in the sense that everyone (except McDavid) gets something good.

Not sure about the Lindsay award. I don't really care about it.

I hope Kucherov gets the hart. He's pulling away in the Ross race, he should get rewarded for that not penalized when it comes to hart.

 

[VinikToWinIt]

No attempts on the shoot out?

Ringing endorsement by Cooper. He's there for EN though.

Pretty telling that MacKinnon isn’t even the best goaltender on his own team.

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

I find it so bizarre how the media seems to avoid covering Kucherov's insane season compared to McDavid and MacKinnon. He's literally cementing himself as the best playmaking winger of all time with this season, yet it doesn't seem to gather much interest from them.
I get he's not the media darling at all, but c'mon.

Most of the Canadian media who would normally be pumping this story is based out of Toronto where Kuch is a huge villain. He has been incredible this season.

It sucks McDavid has gotten injured a couple of times this year, I would've loved to see this go down with both guys healthy and giving it their all. What a treat this race has been.

 

[beckstreaker07]

I find it so bizarre how the media seems to avoid covering Kucherov's insane season compared to McDavid and MacKinnon. He's literally cementing himself as the best playmaking winger of all time with this season, yet it doesn't seem to gather much interest from them.
I get he's not the media darling at all, but c'mon.

Most were using 100 assists as to why McDavid could get the Hart but now Kuch is about to hit 100 it doesn't seem as important to the "insiders". Kuch has a real chance at hitting 50/100/150; which should all but guarantee him the Hart.

 

[Sky04]

You take Mackinnon off the Avs and that team should be near the bottom of the league this season with all the injuires and players missing games. The only example recently I can think of where a team with a worse top 6 forward group and goaltending have had a good regular season is a few seasons when the Oilers basically depended on McDavid and Draisaitl almost exclusively to win them games.

It's not like they have another 100 point player on their team or anything.

 

[The Macho King]

Pretty telling that MacKinnon isn’t even the best goaltender on his own team.

I've seen shoot out attempts where he literally doesn't even shoot the damn puck.



A good Canadian would never.

 

[T REX]

What are you talking about here?

not you

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

It’s certainly a big endorsement from his coach, no?

Shootouts, are we really going there now?

Kuch is 0 for 2 this year.
Mack is 0 for 3.

 

[EmptyNetAssassin]

You take Mackinnon off the Avs and that team should be near the bottom of the league this season with all the injuires and players missing games. The only example recently I can think of where a team with a worse top 6 forward group and goaltending have had as good regular season is a few seasons when the Oilers basically depended on McDavid and Draisaitl almost exclusively to win them games.

Same for Kucherov. Let's be honest here If his name was nick kuche from Quebec all the Canadian media would be saying he is the greatest right winger in the league since jagr and is the mvp. McDavid, Mack, and Kucherov are all hof worthy players.

 

[daver]

Same for Kucherov. Let's be honest here If his name was nick kuche from Quebec all the Canadian media would be saying he is the greatest right winger in the league since jagr and is the mvp. McDavid, Mack, and Kucherov are all hof worthy players.

Let's be honest here. MacKinnon brings more to the game besides offense than Kucherov.

 

[The Macho King]

Let's be honest here. MacKinnon brings more to the game besides offense than Kucherov.

I never bought this. MacKinnon is bad defensively too. Parsing it beyond that is kind of pointless - neither of these guys are Bergeron and neither of these guys are Phil Housley.

The only thing Nate brings that Kucherov doesn't is aesthetic. His game "looks" more impressive. But at the end of these days these guys are paid for their production.

 

[Leksand]

Most of the Canadian media who would normally be pumping this story is based out of Toronto where Kuch is a huge villain. He has been incredible this season.

It sucks McDavid has gotten injured a couple of times this year, I would've loved to see this go down with both guys healthy and giving it their all. What a treat this race has been.

If McDavid had been healthy this season, I think he would have run away with the Art Ross, Hart, Lindsay, possibly passing Yzerman to have the third highest point in a season ever, and possibly challenging Orr to have the third most assists in a season ever.

But he hasn't and he isn't. And it's speculation.

It's really awesome as is, where it's entirely possible and even the most likely at this point that the Art Ross winner will become the fourth player to ever have 100 or more assists in a season, the Rocket Richard winner will score 70 goals, and neither will win the Hart.

It's kind of tempting to already think about next season on current trends - but let's not - let's enjoy the moment.