Welcome back to another edition of our Stat Pack, which digs into some of the most intriguing numbers of the week in the NHL.
This time around, we’ve got new reasons to marvel at Connor McDavid, a scary slump for St. Louis and the Vancouver Canucks’ wonder twins breaking more new ground as they get set for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Good: McDavid Raising The Bar As He Hits 500 Games
Connor McDavid added a goal and an assist to his league-leading totals on Monday night as the Edmonton Oilers opened a four-game road trip with a 5-4 loss to the Washington Capitals.
Monday marked the 500th regular-season game of McDavid’s NHL career. His 724 points are sixth-most in NHL history over that span, a pace of 1.45 points per game that’s behind only the torchbearers from the 80s and early 90s: Gretzky, Lemieux, Stastny, Bossy and Kurri.
McDavid’s 500-game numbers are easily the best among active players. Sidney Crosby had 706 points at his 500-game mark in 2013 and Alex Ovechkin had 633 in 2011.
With 27 points in 13 games this season, the four-time Art Ross Trophy winner is averaging an incredible 2.08 points per game. McDavid is two points ahead of teammate Leon Draisaitl atop this year’s Art Ross race, and his 13 goals also have him in pole position for the Rocket Richard Trophy, three ahead of second-place Bo Horvat and Erik Karlsson.
McDavid is scoring on a stunning 25 percent of his shots so far this season, nearly 10 percentage points above his career average of 15.3 percent. For most players, we’d say regression is likely. With McDavid, don’t be surprised if his new benchmark turns out to be sustainable.
With those extra goals, McDavid is also well on his way to putting up more points in a season than we’ve seen in nearly 30 years. Even if he drops back to his career average of 1.45 points per game for the Oilers’ 69 remaining games, he’ll be in range to beat Nikita Kucherov’s 128 points from 2018-19, the highest total since Mario Lemieux’s 161-point season back in 1995-96.
The Bad: The Blues’ Blues
The St. Louis Blues saw their league-leading losing streak stretch to seven games on Monday night when they dropped a 3-1 road decision to the Boston Bruins.
After coming out of the gate with three wins, the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions have since been outscored 33-11 in their seven losses, which have all been by two goals or more, and they’ve averaged a league-low 1.57 goals per game.
Team captain and 2019 Selke Trophy winner Ryan O’Reilly, who has already publicly called himself on the carpet, has just one point in 10 games and his minus-12 ranking is second worst in the league. The only player lower is teammate Jordan Kyrou, following up a 75-point season with just four points in 10 games and a scary minus-15.
Of course, St. Louis showed how to turn a season around by going from last place all the way to a Stanley Cup in 2019. That — and the same limited salary-cap flexibility that plagues most teams this year — could make GM Doug Armstrong more willing to give his group additional rope to try to sort out this slump internally.
The Blues play four of their next five games on the road. They’ll finish off a back-to-back set in Philadelphia on Tuesday, then return to Enterprise Center to host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday before heading west for a tough three-game swing that will take them through Vegas and Colorado before finishing in Chicago.
The Hockey Hall of Fame: Seeing Double
The four-day Hockey Hall of Fame induction celebration kicks off in Toronto on Friday. The Class of 2022 includes a pair of honorees who are breaking new ground in the 79-year-old institution.
Daniel and Henrik Sedin are the ninth set of brothers to be inducted, but the first pair ever to be part of the same induction class.
It’s fitting that they’re still carving out their own unique path. They were the first brothers ever to be selected consecutively in the first round of the NHL draft — Daniel was second and Henrik was third overall in 1999. They were also the first brothers ever to skate in at least 1,300 games each, and to each put up at least 1,000 points.
The twins are also the only brothers ever to win back-to-back Art Ross Trophies. Only two other sets of brothers ever were both scoring champions: Charlie Conacher (1933-34 and 1934-35, Toronto) and Roy Conacher (1948-49, Chicago) and Doug Bentley (1942-43) and Max Bentley (1945-46 and 1946-47), both with Chicago.
This year also marks the first time more than one Swedish-born player is inducted into the Hall in the same year. Daniel Alfredsson is also part of the Class of 2022, bringing that total to three. Roberto Luongo’s induction also gives the Vancouver Canucks three honorees in this year’s class.
Also being inducted: Finnish women’s hockey legend Riikka Sallinen and builder Herb Carnegie.
The Canucks announced Monday that the twins and Luongo will be honored when the Florida Panthers visit Vancouver on Dec. 1.
