Connor McDavid is on the verge of a 100-assist season.
That hasn’t been done in 33 years. The only 100-assist seasons in NHL history have been accomplished by Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr.
In a hockey season unlike any before it, McDavid is a candidate for the Hart Trophy as most valuable player to his team. He is no sure thing to win the award.
Auston Matthews is one the verge of a 70-goal season or close to that.
That hasn’t been done in 31 years. Matthews is a candidate for the Hart Trophy. He is no sure thing to win the award.
Nikita Kucherov currently leads the NHL in scoring. Three players will score more than 130 points this season, the first time that’s happened in 31 years.
Remarkably Kucherov has 48 more points than anyone on his Tampa Bay team. That is a Lemieux-Gretzky kind of number from days gone by, when NHL scoring was out of control.
Kucherov is a candidate for the Hart. He is no sure thing to win the award.
David Pastrnak in Boston is somewhere near Kucherov with dominance on his own team. He has 41 points more than anyone other teammate.
Pastrnak is a candidate for the Hart. He is no sure thing to win the award.
And not far behind them is New York’s Artemi Panarin, fresh off the reference to him on Curb Your Enthusiasm, with 36 more points than any other Ranger.
Panarin is a candidate for the Hart. He is unlikely to win the award.
And this isn’t mentioning, until now, the possible favourite, Nathan MacKinnon, the powerhouse centre from Colorado, just behind Kucherov in scoring. He has 20 points more than he’s ever scored before.
He’s more than a candidate for the Hart. He’s been in the conversation all year long.
So how do you pick a winner from this group?
In any given season, McDavid, MacKinnon, Kucherov, Matthews, Pastrnak and Panarin would all be good enough to win the Hart.
There has never been a season like this one, with this array of individual greatness, with this difficult a choice to choose an MVP.
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THIS AND THAT
And what happens if the Pittsburgh Penguins rally and make the playoffs? Does Sidney Crosby then enter the MVP conversation as well? … Voting for the Hart is complicated. Voting for the Norris Trophy is almost as difficult. On eye test alone, every time I see Cale Makar play I think Norris Trophy. And every time I see Quinn Hughes play, I think Norris Trophy. And the same is true for Roman Josi. There are three Norris candidates, all of them identified the other day by Victor Hedman in the Tampa dressing room. Try picking a winner or any order. I change it almost daily. And on my ballot, I’m voting Hedman fourth … It’s easier to vote for the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward. For me, it used to be Patrice Bergeron and everyone after that. And now it’s Sasha Barkov in Florida and everyone else after that … Matthews will get votes for the Hart, the Selke and the Lady Byng. He will win the Rocket Richard. He might win the Byng … Mitch Marner is an apparent star playing for his hometown team. Normally, that would make him the most popular guy around. But for whatever reason, his personality maybe, he doesn’t seem to be overly embraced by Leafs Nation. The relationship with him, the public and the media is unusual and uneasy considering the circumstances … Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe can’t pull a fourth-line versus first-line kind of matchup in his own end in a playoff game, the way he did the other night against Tampa Bay. That’s the kind of move that gets a coach fired … I asked Jon Cooper if he ever saw a superstar who skated less than Kucherov seems to skate most games. His answer: Nick Lidstrom. And after he said that, I thought Chris Pronger as well …. Cooper is slated to be the Team Canada coach for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. And that should be announced shortly. But oddly, Hockey Canada wants different people coaching and managing teams between the Four Nations NHL tournament next winter and the Olympics the year after. Decisions are still to be made in this area. GM Doug Armstrong will oversee the entire operation and a young gun, maybe Rick Nash, maybe Shane Doan, maybe Ryan Getzlaf, will run the Four Nations team … Ilya Samsonov did not like being the Leafs nominee for the great Masterton Trophy, which goes to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey. Years from now he will probably appreciate the journey of almost losing his career mid-season and then somehow bouncing back. Just not now. Crosby happens to be a nominee for the award and is there any player in the NHL, year in year out, who better exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication than Crosby. If it’s OK for Crosby, I’d think, it would be OK for me.
HEAR AND THERE
Push the no-hitter and the one-hitter thrown against the Blue Jays to the side for a moment and exhale accordingly. The Jays began the season with 10 games on the road — in tough places. If they come home 4-6, 5-5 or maybe 6-4 for Monday’s home opener, that’s about as good as could be expected. And they’ve done this with next to no offence from Bo Bichette or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. … I worry about John Schneider’s philosophies as a big league manager — or whether they’re even his. The pulling of Jose Berrios in the post-season. The determination to sit Davis Schneider the day after his game-winning home run off Josh Hader in Houston. His continued defence of the Berrios playoff strategy. Baseball is played by living and breathing athletes. Humans. You can’t predetermine outcomes in sports. Manager Schneider either believes that nonsense or is being told to believe it. Either way, it’s a bad look … Combined, the supposed to be near-dead Yankees and Red Sox are 12-4 to start the season … Don’t know what’s worse — the way the Oakland A’s have operated the last several years or the way Major League Baseball is allowing the A’s to become a vagabond franchise in Sacramento before moving to Las Vegas … Kim Ng, the first female general manager in baseball, guided the Miami Marlins to an unlikely playoff spot last season. And then the Marlins tried to hire someone over her in baseball operations — so she left. And ain’t karma wonderful? The Marlins are 0-8 to start the season without Ng.
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SCENE AND HEARD
Been following sports my whole life and I’ve never seen anything quite like the attention surrounding Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark. She has some Gretzky in her, the way she moves, thin body type, elusive, with remarkable vision. Canadian television executives I know are wondering if this an incredible moment in time or if this is a new reality for women’s sports on television. Almost 13 million Americans washed Iowa play last week. The TSN numbers from Friday night’s game won’t be available — and maybe not released to the public at all — until Monday. What will be interesting: Whether Canadians are as hooked on Clark as Americans seem to be … You can call a screening foul on almost every possession in every basketball game. But to call it — on our Canadian Aaliyah Edwards — in the final seconds of the Iowa-UConn game Friday night just seemed off … If it happens, looking forward to seeing Clark on Team USA at the Paris Olympics, where Edwards will be playing for Canada … Before Matthews scored 60 goals for the second time in his career, the previous eight double 60-goal scorers went on to win 22 Stanley Cups, and lose in the final seven times across their careers. The only double 60-goal player not to win the Cup was Pavel Bure, who lost in Game 7 in 1994 … This seems so unlikely: Since January 1, Matthews leads the NHL with 34 goals. Second is Zach Hyman at 31 … When the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967, they had just two 20-goal scorers, Ron Ellis and Jim Pappin. In the opening round, they knocked off the Blackhawks who had a 50-goal scorer in Bobby Hull, two 30-goal scorers including Stan Mikita, and three 20-goal scorers, including the still emerging centre Phil Esposito … You don’t want to face Andrei Vasilevskiy in the playoffs. In his past 10 starts, the Lightning are 8-1-1, his goals against average is right around 2 and his save percentage is .937 in that time … When the Leafs lost to Sergei Bobrovsky and the Florida Panthers in Round 2 last May, Bobrovsky had a save percentage of .940 in the series … Since the trade deadline, the Carolina Hurricanes are 11-3-1 and key pickup Jake Guentzel has 20 points in the 13 games he has played for the Canes … What a lame playoff race this has been in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia has won five of its last 17 games and is still in a playoff position. Detroit has won four of its last 16 games and is one point out. Makes you wonder how Buffalo and Ottawa couldn’t make a playoff push … New MLSE CEO Keith Pelley is a music nut. For his 50th birthday, his friends arranged for Burton Cummings to play at his party. For a Grey Cup party in Toronto years ago at David Cynamon’s Forest Hill home, he sang on stage with Trooper. Since taking over MLSE just six days ago, he’s already seen Bad Bunny and Kane Brown in concert at Scotiabank Arena, even if he didn’t know who either were.
AND ANOTHER THING
I will believe Larry Tanenbaum is leaving Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment when he announces it. And I’ll have to watch him walk out the door as well. Until then, I’m dubious about the notion that he’s selling and getting out. Tanenbaum, previously with 25% ownership of MLSE, has all but acted as owner of the teams in his time with MLSE. He is chairman of the board of the NBA. He is very well regarded in NHL ownership circles. Yeah, he’s getting to 80 years of age. But he’s a very stubborn, active and well connected 80, highly regarded in sporting circles moreso than the corporate heads who own 75% of the Leafs, Raptors, and the rest of the conglomerate … What a nice quiet signing James van Riemsdyk has turned out to be for the Boston Bruins. The soon to be 35-year-old good guy has been playing third or fourth line in Boston and has been a coach’s dream. He rarely gets scored on … You can have too many days of Wrestlemania if you want but it’s a little much for me. The match I look forward to has Jet Tila cooking Antonia Lofaso on Sunday night in Guy Fieri’s kitchen … My favourites Barnes’ in no particular order: Scottie Barnes; Bad New Barnes; Joe Barnes. Norm Barnes. And the barn Brian Burke was supposed to fight Kevin Lowe in … No, that wasn’t a misprint. Malachi Flynn did score 50 points the other night for Detroit Pistons. He used to score 50 points for the Raptors, too, about every eight or nine games combined … From the department of anything is possible: Terrence Ross once scored 50 points for the Raptors and Acie Earl, in the early days of the franchise, scored an unlikely 40 against Boston … The Zach Edey story is more than remarkable: He’s twice player of the year in NCAA basketball. The Canadian kid was late to basketball. No Canadian had ever won the award before. That would be something unusual like an American from Arizona scoring 60 in an NHL season … Congratulations to Vince Carter, who apparently has been inducted to the quitting wing of the Basketball Hall of Fame … What a pleasure Chris Van Zeyl was to deal with over the years. What a treasure the retiring offensive lineman was in many years playing offensive line in the Canadian Football League …. Happy birthday to James (Buster) Douglas (64); Tony Dorsett (70), Ilya Lyubushkin (30), Joe Bowen (73), Moritz Seider (23), Charlotte Flair (38), Bert Blyleven (72), Jim Paek (57), Ted Nolan (66), Adrian Beltre (45), Bill Stoneman (80) and Diana Matheson (40) … And hey, whatever became of Brandon League?
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