1 pick in 2011, knows what that feels like. He doesn’t just resort to doing the same thing day in and day out, year in and year out.”Īll that after entering the NHL with the pressure of not only being the top pick in the 2015 draft but called hockey’s “Next One” as a generational talent expected to follow in Crosby’s skate tracks. “I see a 200-foot player, I see a lot of defensive details in his game and I see someone who has adapted offensively. “I think there is evolving his personal game,” coach Jay Woodcroft said. And he has become a serviceable penalty killer. He had 89 giveaways in 2018-19 and has not approached that number since.
But if the storied franchise is going to hang a sixth Cup banner from the rafters, McDavid’s evolution will be a big reason for it.Īfter winning just 41.2% of his faceoffs in his rookie year, McDavid has steadily improved in the circle to the point he’s now in the top 25 players in the league in that category. The furthest he and the Oilers have advanced in the the playoffs was last season, when they reached the Western Conference Final before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Colorado Avalanche.Įdmonton needs more than just McDavid and longtime running mate Leon Draisaitl to make another deep run. McDavid has won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer four times and Hart as MVP twice. “I’ve won my Art Rosses and Hart trophies and that stuff’s all kind of a moot point.“ “Numbers, really, at this point, I’ve kind of been there and done that,” McDavid said. Before training camp he said that would be nice but pale in comparison to team success. He again leads the NHL in points a quarter of the way through the season with 39 in 22 games, and McDavid’s next trick could be scoring 50 goals in a season for the first time. Only five players in league history have put up more points through 500 games than McDavid’s 724 and the list does not include Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and other elite players. ”I play the game a little bit different, but you have to adapt in the NHL otherwise you don’t go very far.” “I’d like to think I’m a more responsible player, probably not as reckless as I was at 18 years old,“ said McDavid, who will turn 26 in January.
He is arguably the best player in the world after following a Crosby-like blueprint of isolating individual weaknesses and turning them into strengths.
McDavid is a much different player 500-plus games into his career than he was seven years ago when he made his debut. “You look at a guy like Sid, who I think has changed his game a little bit here and there a few times over, it’s so incredible to see.”Īnd familiar. “Just the longevity of it,” the Edmonton Oilers captain said. On the eve of skating in his 500th regular-season NHL game, Connor McDavid marveled at how Sidney Crosby has maintained a high level of play for more than twice that long.
0 kommentar(er)
