There are zero teams in the North that finished in the top 10 in the standings last year.
That's irrelevant to this year. Surely you realize that numerous teams go up and down the standings each season, sometimes unpredictably. Also, being "top 10 in the standings" doesn't necessarily mean it's harder to score against you.
Even if that argument
were relevant, which it isn't, you have to also factor in which teams were weakest, and which teams were easiest to score against last year. (That is, if your point about last year was relevant to this year, which it isn't.)
Finally, here's how McDavid did last season against the top-10 teams: 28 points /16 games =
1.75 points per game (i.e., higher than he scored vs. the bottom 20 teams).
There is only 1 goalie from the North in the top 15 in SV% this year, and that's Smith from Edmonton (20 game minimum).
This is also (mostly) irrelevant, as players don't face individual goalies, they face teams. As of a day ago, the NHL's total save percentage was .904, and the North division's was .903. So, yeah, what a huge difference from League average!!
Of the 8 lowest save percentage teams, one is in the North division.
And, it's not just one scorer who is benefiting. McDavid, Matthews, Marner, Schiefele, etc. are all putting up career best PPG rates this year. With that many players from a single division scoring at career best rates, there must be something going on in the division.
Oh yes, SOMETHING MUST BE GOING ON if 4 already-elite players among seven clubs are each having great seasons!! Why, I bet that's never happened in League history when all the teams played one another!!
And yet...
Johnny Gaudreau is having his worst season.
McDavid's teammates (and sometimes linemates) like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kailer Yamamoto are having worse seasons than last year.
Elias Pettersson is having his worst season.
Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler are having worse seasons than last year.
(Mitch Marner, btw, is only scoring 0.10 PPG better than two seasons ago, which is exactly what you'd expect when his team is doing better than then.)
I mean,
really, people. This line of thinking needs to end.