We are talking about McDavid specifically. Like Matthews, his season is a statistical anomaly compared to their other seasons which may or may not be attributable to the significant changes to the league. If they do these things again under normal circumstances then they deserve to be taken more at face value.
I don't think McDavid nor Matthew's totals need to be "taken at face value" to be impressive as hell, and among the best seasons (or goal-scoring season for Matthews) this century.
93 in 51 is a staggering number. I think once things go back to normal league-wide next year we'll probably get a better sense of how much this season warrants "adjusting" - but how much do you expect it to be by?
If you compare to Crosby in 2011.
2011 - league average goal-scoring 2.73 per game.
2021 - league average goal-scoring 2.87 goals per game. That's ~5% higher
2021 North division only - average goal scoring 2.94 goals per game. That's ~8% higher
Want to add an extra 5% for good measure, just due to unusual circumstances/making it hard to read? Ok - we're now at ~13% higher.
McDavid has 93 points in 51 games. That's a pace of 150 points in 82 games.
If you reduce his numbers by 5% you get 88 points in 51 games, or a pace of 142 points in 82 games
If you reduce his numbers by 8% you get 85 points in 51 games, or a pace of 136 points in 82 games
If you reduce his numbers by 13% you get 80 points in 51 games, or a pace of 129 points in 82 games
Crosby in 2011 had 66 in 41. A pace of 132 in 82 games.
I guess if you use 13% (remember I randomly added an extra 5%) - you can say Crosby's pace was higher - but he also only played 41 games, to McDavid's now 51 games.
McDavid also had another problem, where a few weeks ago it looked like ~35-40% of his offense cam against the 2 worst teams (Calgary/Ottawa). I remember a while ago I showed how against those 2 teams he had a pace of ~193 points, and against the rest was ~110 points. But that's normalized a lot since then.
Pace of 168 points against Calgary/Ottawa (who aren't even the 2 worst teams in division anymore, as Vancouver is worst)
Pace of 138 points against the other 4 teams
Also - in all of my calculations above, I tried to round off #s in the most negative direction possible for McDavid.
Simply put - he's having a fantastic season. I'm fine to wait and see how things look next year to get a bit more context and be able to put it into better perspective - but at this point, I think he'll have a very strong argument for best season of the 2000's.