Do you think McDavid is having the best season of the 2000s or the new divisions are the reason?

[Sasha Orlov]

If it was just the division then he wouldn't be running away with the lead right now

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

Yea, the majority are players coming into their primes, what a crazy concept.

That is definitely a part of it. But, why is the North the only division with that many top players scoring ~0.1 PPG better than their previous career best seasons? Barkov isn't having a career best season. Neither is Barzal. Or Kane. Or Marchand. Or Panarin. Aho is 0.01 above his. MacKinnon is 0.05 above his previous best. But of the 5 North players in the top 12 in PPG, there are 4 who are currently ~0.1 PPG higher than their previous career best, which raises some serious questions about what's going on in the North.

 

[nowhereman]

Nah, it's only a coincidence that McDavid is pacing at the highest PPG since the days or Gretzky/Lemieux or that Matthews is scoring goals at a 66 goal pace, even though neither have touched this level of production before. Just ignore that Mitch Marner is putting up almost an assist per game or that Tyler Toffoli looks like Mike Bossy.

Don't blame the North!

And with Edmonton playing a Covid-ravaged Canucks team (in this totally normal season where every stat should be taken at face value), you know he's going to pad those stats like crazy.

 

[LEAFSANDBILLSFAN]

Will be the best player of the 2000s when his career is over. Being in the North Division is irrelevant. The guy is just starting to really take off and would've been pushing close to 150 points during a normal year. One can only hope that Edmonton continues to surround him with vastly inferior talent because he's going to be a demon in the NHL if Edmonton figures out how to build a roster.

 

[Cup or Bust]

If it's the division than other stars in it must not be that great this season because he is leaving them in his dust. McDavid has been trending this way and I think he would have had a monster season regardless of the season's format. Even out of the best teams in the league only the real grinding defensive teams usually contain him some games, the rest he still has good games against, so I do not think the format would have made a huge difference. There are also terrible teams in all the other divisions he could light up. He has been trending upwards towards a 130-140 point prime, so I am not surprised at all. The format may have made some difference, he might have had less points over a regular season format but I actually think McDavid has improved as a player the last two seasons, so I do not think it is a coincidence his PPG has continued to improve.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

That is definitely a part of it. But, why is the North the only division with that many top players scoring ~0.1 PPG better than their previous career best seasons? Barkov isn't having a career best season. Neither is Barzal. Or Kane. Or Marchand. Or Panarin. Aho is 0.01 above his. MacKinnon is 0.05 above his previous best. But of the 5 North players in the top 12 in PPG, there are 4 who are currently ~0.1 PPG higher than their previous career best, which raises some serious questions about what's going on in the North.

Because those 5 players are all significantly better than the others you've listed? This is not rocket appliances.

 

[orby]

I don't think you can really take anything away from McDavid's scoring prowess based on what division he plays in. Would he maybe have scored a few less points if he had to play every team in the league instead of just the Canadian ones? Maybe, but even then he'd be running away with the scoring title.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

What is McDavid pacing for in a full season? He's great of course, but I have to think the format this year is playing a part in some of the crazy numbers.

 

[King K Rool]

Because those 5 players are all significantly better than the others you've listed? This is not rocket appliances.

Lol. I love Rickyisms.

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

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).

Yes, teams go up and down in the standings but, where a team finished in the previous year is usually a good indicator of how good they are. Most of the top teams from last year are still top teams this year.

In terms of the hardest to score against, there's only 1 team from the North in the top 10 (Winnipeg - 10th). Edmonton was the 2nd hardest team to score against from the North, and they were 15th best in the NHL. The other 5 teams in the North were below average at best, with Ottawa being the 2nd worst in the NHL.

As for McDavid, what was his overall PPG last year? What he did in 16 games means very little compared to what he did in 64.

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.

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!!

Yes, they face teams and not just goalies. But, only one of the North teams was good defensively last year, and none of the goalies are having good seasons. Which teams in the North are hard to score against? It's great that their goalies aren't all bottom 10, but the plethora of mediocre goalies in the North doesn't bring up the overall quality very much.

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.

Gaudreau struggled last year too. This is a continuation of his decline, not a new development.
RNH is right around his career average PPG. Last year was more of the anomaly than this year.
Yamamoto played 27 games last year. There were always questions about whether he could repeat that.
Pettersson is in his third NHL season, and his team has struggled with COVID.
The Jets are significantly worse than they were last year. Connor is only in his 4th full NHL season, and is still putting up his 2nd best PPG rate, and Wheeler is scoring at his career average 0.82 PPG. Wheeler is also 34 years old, so a decline isn't unexpected.

And, just to be clear, I'm not saying the top players in the North wouldn't still be very good. But, I definitely question if some of these top guys have a few points that they wouldn't otherwise have in a normal season.[/QUOTE]

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

Because those 5 players are all significantly better than the others you've listed? This is not rocket appliances.

Marner, Matthews and Scheifele are all significantly better than MacKinnon?

 

[Mr Positive]

Ive seen a lot of the Canadian division games and its horrible. Habs, Sens and Flames are bottom 10 teams and Winnipeg isn't much better, especially defensively.

He's good, but he's not 2011 crosby or 65 goals Ovi.

They called obstruction back then. Put McDavid on the PP more, and have teams hook and slash him less, and he could outpace those two

 

[King K Rool]

What is McDavid pacing for in a full season? He's great of course, but I have to think the format this year is playing a part in some of the crazy numbers.

In 82 games he would be pacing for 49 goals 97 assists and 146 points

 

[North Cole]

LA allowed fewer GA/GP last year than every team in the North except Winnipeg. I imagine that would reduce his PPG slightly.

Anaheim and SJ both allowed fewer GA/GP last year than Ottawa. He also plays fewer combined games against Anaheim and SJ in a normal year (4 each) than he has played against Ottawa (9 total). I imagine that would reduce his PPG slightly.

He'd also be playing 4 games against Arizona, who was tied for the 3rd lowest GA/GP last year. The best defensive North team was 10th.. I imagine that would reduce his PPG slightly.

But we're living in 2021 now. Arizona is 21st this year. LA is flipped, they are only better than Vancouver and Ottawa, and below the other 5 north teams. ANA and SJ are 23 and 27.

Using normal Divisions, 6/8 pacific teams are in the bottom half of GA/G this year, with Vegas being 1st and the Oilers 10th. Next closest is CGY at 17.... this year there's only two playoff teams from the Pacific.

Only reason the divisional gf/ga per game stats are halfway decent is because the bottom 4 are as inept offensively as they are defensively. Whereas the North is bad defensively but can actually score goals top to bottom. LA is the highest of the bottom 4 in gf/g, at 23rd

 

[Mrb1p]

I don't think you can really take anything away from McDavid's scoring prowess based on what division he plays in. Would he maybe have scored a few less points if he had to play every team in the league instead of just the Canadian ones? Maybe, but even then he'd be running away with the scoring title.

Running away with a scoring title and being the best player in the league by quite a bit =/= being better than Crosby, peak Ovi or Jagr.

 

[King K Rool]

A fact that is completely overshadowed by McDavid is that Draisaitl would be pacing for 119 points in an 82 game season himself!

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

But we're living in 2021 now. Arizona is 21st this year. LA is flipped this year, they are only better than Vancouver and Ottawa, and below the other 5 north teams.

Using normal Divisions, 6/8 pacific teams are in the bottom half of GA/G... with Vegas being 1st and the Oilers 10th. Next closest is CGY at 17....

Is Arizona 21st because they got significantly worse, or is it because they've been dominated in 8 games against the Avs? Almost makes me wonder how the North teams would do if they had to play Colorado 8 times. I'm guessing it would have a pretty significant impact on their GA/GP numbers.

 

[McFlash97]

A fact that is completely overshadowed by McDavid is that Draisaitl would be pacing for 119 points in an 82 game season himself!

Man Leon is such an underrated superstar.

 

[weinsink]

Fantastic player playing in the leagues worst division

Exactly

 

[Paperbagofglory]

And the play ins are the standard now? The Habs are nowhere near a PO team and they may just be the 2nd best defensive team in this division.

The two best teams in the division are top ten in the league in goals against. Montreal is not the second best anything in that division. They are smack dab in the middle in every statistical category. Stop making up fantasies.

 

[Kranix]

Imagine if he played in the East against New Jersey, Philly and Buffalo 9 games each.

 

[AnInjuredJasonZucker]

I made a dumb joke about Sam Bennett feasting in a weak division since the trade, and the knives came out. For some people, suggesting that they are not facing quite as much diversity as they think is the greatest insult.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

How dare Canadian teams have good players now and tops in the league.. totally unacceptable and there HAS to be reasons for this catastrophe

 

[Paperbagofglory]

How dare Canadian teams have good players now... totally unacceptable and there HAS to be reasons for this catastrophe

The league can't grow if Canadian teams are good and teams in markets need of help are bad.

If we could find some way to artificially inflate stats and manage the game, maybe make some kind of point system that creates less punishment for losing and keeps bad teams in races for longer. Maybe then we can finally have a league that works.

 

[Pass the Saitl Sauce]

A fact that is completely overshadowed by McDavid is that Draisaitl would be pacing for 119 points in an 82 game season himself!

Draisaitl is scoring at a lower pace than he was last year too