I think he came back early as well to play in the heritage classic.He missed 2 games at the start of the season with an upper body injury that was anticipated to see him out up to 2 weeks. No matter which way you slice it, he wasn't 100% for 100% of the season. And his 75% might still exceed many players 100% so I guess "garbage" is subjective
McDavid missed the last game of 21-22 to rest up for the playoffs.
It really depends. If home ice/first in the division is on the line I don't think he sits. If the Art Ross is up for grabs I don't think he sits either.
But in 2021-22 missing the last game would have had no impact on his chances to win the scoring race. If he's 10pts up with a couple games to go or 10pts back, I can see him skipping a couple games, but if it's close, I suspect he cares enough about the scoring title to play those games and go for it.
I should clarify that I meant McDavid looked like garbage relative to his usual self. McD averages over 1.5 ppg. After 11 games he was 0.9. That is a HUGE drop off. Whereas the other two (Kuch & Mack) produced starts almost (but not quite) in line with their career average ppgs. So yes, I stand corrected in that McD was never truly behind the 8 ball. But it would also be disingenuous to say that this was a typical start to the season for McD.
The year to year margins offensively between players will never be like they were in the 80's because no teams score 400 goals a season any more but career wise no one currently in the NHL is even close to McDavid, he is elite every season and at the top of the charts every single season. Other players at their absolute best for 1 or 2 seasons match what McDavid does every season.
It wasn't "teams". It was just the Gretzky Oilers at his absolute peak.
If he was several tiers above them he'd won the Art already. I think Gretzky would have won playing a little over half a season his craziest season, and Lemieux could generally skip 20 games or so (non Peak Gretzky years).
No because that is the whole point of this thread, to talk trash about the scoring leader and props another player more deserving of the art ross even if he has less points.
My point was not whether Gretzky or McDavid would dominate more or less, my point is that no player would ever dominate to the same degree because it's not likely for any team to score 360 - 400 goals and create that large of a disparity. When the best offensive teams are only scoring 280 to 320 goals a season in most cases and even less in previous seasons until recently and there is a salary cap which only allows so much high end talent per team you are not likely to ever get 50 or 60 point variances in most cases between the best performing players in the league in the scoring race, at least not consistently. If Gretzky played in today's era on a team that scores 300 goals a season which is high end in today's game, even if he scored on 50% that is only 150 points. That is not likely going to win the scoring title by 50-60 points.
I don't disagree with most of this, I guess I just think his apparent meteoric rise through the scoring list is overblown or somewhat misleading.
You don't find it amazing that McD can get off to such a dismal start and still end up pacing for his 2nd highest points total ever?
To be honest, no. Everyone goes through hot and cold streaks and we’re only talking about 10 or 11 games where he was able to still get 10 points, so his cold streak was pretty limited
