EDMONTON — In his first year as the Edmonton Oilers‘ head coach, the sun shone on Todd McLellan’s career. His new team had won the draft lottery, and he would he be the one to coach Connor McDavid into the National Hockey League.
First stop, summer development camp — relocated from some anonymous community rink into Rexall Place at the behest of the thousands who had crossed the desert to see the new saviour — where McLellan got his first viewing of the new prodigy.
The coach would return to his summer lodgings in the Okanagan with news of the new king.
“It was like he was from another planet,” McLellan recalls. “There were a lot of really good players there, but nobody who could come close to what he was doing that day.
“At that moment, it was like, ‘Holy, this guy’s for real.’”
Holy, indeed.
On Thursday in Edmonton, McDavid one-timed home a puck with assists from Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse — two of just three teammates remaining from McDavid’s rookie season — to record his 1,000th NHL point.
It was, befitting of the player, a well-executed, high-skill endeavour, as Draisaitl feathered a puck over Nashville defenceman Jeremy Lauzon’s stick right into McDavid’s wheelhouse, and the greatest player in the game today snapped a one-timer past goalie Scott Wedgewood’s chanceless glove hand for goal No. 341, point No, 1,000.
“It was nice to score a one-timer. I don’t get many of those,” chuckled McDavid, who becomes the 99th player to accumulate 1,000 NHL point.
As he reaches middle age in NHL years — this is McDavid’s 10th NHL season; he turns 28 in January — the maniacally focused superstar has slowly begun to smell the roses of may be recorded as this century’s most flowered hockey career.
“Some of these things have kind of hit me a little more emotionally than I would have thought,” he admitted post-game. “You spend your whole life playing hockey and loving the game and just wanting to play and make the NHL. One thousand points later, playing for 10 years, it’s pretty special.
“You take it for granted sometimes. These moments give you a good chance to look back and be grateful.”
With his father Brian in the stands, McDavid also assisted on the overtime winner by Nurse, feeding the lanky defenceman with a no-look, spin-around backhand pass that Nurse buried behind Wedgwood for a 3-2 victory. That both of the pertinent goals were created by those three was fitting.
“If there could have been a third assist,” Draisaitl reckoned, “you would like to get Nuge (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) in there as well somehow.”
With NHL permission, the Oilers bench emptied after the 1,000th point. Once everyone had delivered their congratulations, Nurse, Draisaitl and McDavid shared a brief moment in the corner, as 18,347 fans roared their approval.
“Your teammates, the guys you go to battle with,” McDavid said. “ The guys who have been here forever — through the good times and the bad times. You build a brotherhood and you build a bond and we certainly have that.”
Only the great Wayne Gretzky (424 games), the silky Mario Lemieux (513) and sniper Mike Bossy (656) reached 1,000 points faster than McDavid’s 659 games. For you era-adjusted fans, McDavid moves up to third place when we contextualize the feat over the NHL’s many decades.
At 27 years and 306 days old, McDavid is the fourth youngest behind Gretzky (23 and 328), Lemieux (26 and 171) and Steve Yzerman (27 and 291).
“We are not talking greatness. We are talking legendary,” Draisaitl said this week. “It is fun to be a part of.”
Draisaitl, a top-four player in today’s NHL, has been preordained to a career of articulating his teammate’s greatness to the inquiring media, almost as often as he is asked about his own prodigious game. It is a credit that Draisaitl continues to describe the often indescribable with selfless grace, in his second language, no less.
“In my eyes, there’s never been a player like him,” Draisaitl said. “No player has created chances the way he does, at the speed and at the consistency that he does for over 10 years now.”
Asked about Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of Gretzky’s scoring record, Draisaitl massaged his response to enlighten on No. 97:
“I think the most impressive thing is that everybody knows it’s coming and you still can’t stop it,” Draisaitl explained. “The whole game plan is to not let Ovi get looks around the net, not let him shoot it from the left circle. And every single night you go on the NHL app and it says, ‘Ovi pots two.’
“It’s the same thing with Connor. Every team that comes in here, their game plan is, ‘How do we shut down Connor?’ And he gets another 120 points. That’s what the best players do.”
McDavid arrived as an offensive savant, his fast-twitch hands somehow able to keep pace with his meteoric feet, and a mind that dissects the game the way Garry Kasparov broke down a chess board.
Today, he purveys an all-around game that all great players must adopt as a prerequisite to winning in our sport.
“You look at the offensive stats and those are the things that kind of jump off the paper,” Nurse said. “But it’s his all-around game and his commitment to defence. When we’re working on our D-zone and our coverages, he’s the first person asking questions and wants to perfect that side of the game first.”
Along with five Art Ross Trophies, three Hart Trophies and a Conn Smythe, McDavid has become a distinguished captain and leader who draws veterans from across the league who are looking to win.
“I haven’t won yet, and that’s what you’re striving for,” said Mattias Ekholm. “A guy who you know is the best player in the world, but what he values the most is team success.”
When the fans had gone home, and another milestone goal was looping its way through the late-night highlight shows, Draisaitl was asked if McDavid could reach 2,000 points one day.
“If not him, who else?” he replied. “I never bet against Connor McDavid — I have learned that over the last 10 years. It wouldn’t surprise me.”
Alas, there are no surprises left with this second coming of a player.
Further expectations? Sure.
But no more surprises.
