When we get an NHL occurrence like Sidney Crosby passing Mario Lemieux to become the all-time Pittsburgh Penguins scoring leader, it’s obviously a moment to pause, zoom out and appreciate everything two guys — the previous leader and the new one — have done in the game.
It can also be the gateway to other conversations of God-tier greatness.
While Crosby was collecting two points to move past Le Magnifique during Pittsburgh’s 4-3 shootout win over Montreal on Sunday night, Connor McDavid was putting together a three-point night to give his Edmonton Oilers a critical 4-3 victory over their visiting Pacific Division rivals, the Vegas Golden Knights.
What Crosby is doing at 38 years old — on pace for 47 goals, which would be more than anyone has put up past their age-36 season — is remarkable and we should never take for granted what The Kid continues to provide hockey fans.
Let’s just also be sure to not sleep on McDavid because, if we’re being honest, we may have been head-bobbing ever so slightly earlier in the season.
It sounds crazy to say, but with the Oilers scuffling for more than a month and so many other amazing/surprising individual performances to focus on, No. 97 got lost in the shuffle a bit.
Consider the deck re-ordered.
After hitting twine versus the Knights, McDavid has found the net in four straight games and has a dozen goals in his past 10 outings. In the past month, since Nov. 22, McDavid has 14 goals (tied for most in the NHL with Nathan MacKinnon) and is averaging a league-best 2.14 points-per-game (next in line is Nikita Kucherov at 1.85).
The Oilers are far from out of the woods, but after beating Vegas, Edmonton is 7-2-1 in its past 10 outings and averaging 4.4 goals per game in that stretch.
Penguins fans surely feel spoiled to have watched both Lemieux and Crosby in their town, while Northern Alberta has obviously been blessed to watch both Wayne Gretzky and McDavid dazzle.
Gretzky ended his Oilers career with 1,669 points. At his current pace, McDavid would conclude the year with about 1,219 career points, every one of them collected while representing Edmonton.
If you take McDavid’s scoring pace since the start of 2023-24 — 1.63 points per game — and play it out, he could become the Oilers’ all-time points leader a little before the halfway point of the 2029-30 campaign.
Of course, Edmonton fans would just be happy if McDavid — who turns 29 next month — is still an Oiler at that point given his he’s not under contract with the club beyond 2027-28. And McDavid himself is crystal clear about the fact he cares about nothing beyond getting his hands on a Stanley Cup that Gretzky, Lemieux and Crosby all won multiple times.
Let’s not let those high-level concerns compromise our appreciation for the here and now, though. Because even with everything else going on in the NHL, McDavid’s brilliance usually shines brightest.
Weekend Takeaways
• The Buffalo Sabres’ expected goals for percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick, is actually last in the NHL (41.84 per cent) during their six-game winning streak. But if you think we’re here to dump on Buffalo like a Christmastime snowfall, prepare to be disappointed. The Sabres’ streak — extended with a 3-1 victory in New Jersey on Sunday — has several encouraging elements to it, including the fact four of the wins have come on the road. That’s one more road victory than Buffalo had the entire season prior to the start of this run in Edmonton on Dec. 9. The Sabres are allowing just two goals pergame on their hot streak, while Swords stars Tage Thompson (five goals in six games) and Rasmus Dahlin (eight points) are leading the way offensively. With Jarmo Kekalainen taking over as GM — representing a major adult in the room where previously there’s been some highly inexperienced suits — it’s more than OK to allow yourself some optimism right now, Western New York.
• Buffalo’s winning run and the noise of the regime change there has sort of drowned out the sound of the Detroit Red Wings moving up in the Atlantic Division. The Wings completed a weekend, home-and-home sweep of the Washington Capitals on Sunday with a 3-2 overtime win in the Motor City. Detroit — atop the Atlantic with a .608 points percentage — has seven wins in its past nine outings, including five away from home.
The Caps, meanwhile, suddenly have just a single victory in their past half-dozen contests and are failing to average two goals per game in that bumpy run.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Montreal Canadiens (19-12-5) Phillip Danault, acquired from the L.A. Kings on Friday, will play his first game with the Habs since the 2021 Stanley Cup Final when the squad visits Boston on Tuesday.
2. Edmonton Oilers (18-13-6) Major stick-tap to Connor Ingram, who got his first win with the Oilers — and first in the NHL since Feb. 9 — Sunday night at home versus Vegas.
3. Ottawa Senators (18-13-4) The Sens have won four straight after dropping Boston 6-2 in Massachusetts on Sunday and Tim Stutzle — who scored versus the B’s — has a whopping eight points in those four victories.
4. Vancouver Canucks (15-17-3) Only nine American players have more goals this season than Ohio native Kiefer Sherwood, who boosted his total to 16 with a hat trick on Long Island on Friday night.
5. Calgary Flames (15-17-4) Captain Mikael Backlund fired his second straight two-goal effort during Calgary’s big 6-3 win in Vegas on Saturday night. The scoring outburst in the past couple games nearly doubled Backlund’s season output, as he’s now up to nine goals on the year.
6. Toronto Maple Leafs (15-15-5) Toronto is second-last in the Eastern Conference by points percentage and has the hardest remaining schedule of any NHL club.
7. Winnipeg Jets (15-17-3) It’s break time for the Jets and, man, do they need it. Winnipeg will be in full desperation mode upon its return and, right out of the gate, has tough draws at home in the Wild and Oilers.
The Week Ahead
• The suddenly-hot Canucks will visit their former coach, Rick Tocchet, when Vancouver drops into Philly for a tilt with the Flyers on Monday.
• The NHL will be dark from Dec. 24 to 26, but both the final night of action and the first day back are 13-game slates. There’s a Battle of Alberta on Tuesday in Edmonton with the Flames in town, then a return match in Southern Alberta on Saturday when the Oilers visit Calgary. The Battle of Ontario is also set to go Saturday night in Toronto when the Sens visit. That night will see rivalry games all over the league, with the Lightning visiting the Panthers, the Ducks in Los Angeles and Quinn Hughes playing his first game in Winnipeg — or anywhere in Canada — as a member of the Wild.
• There might not be any NHL action for three days, but the world junior championship kicks off on Boxing Day in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minn. Canada’s first game will be on Friday, when it faces the Czechia squad that has ended the Red and White’s past two WJCs in the quarterfinal.
• The NHL roster freeze lifts at midnight on Friday. Could we — after seeing a couple buzzer-beater deals ahead of the freeze — see more action coming right out of it as the trade market starts to shake loose?
