Long live the King

Right. He'll be up there, but this whole debate started with me pushing back on "garunteed best player in the league within 3 years."

Those 100 and 108 point seasons both won him the scoring title. Kucherov just had a career year at 30. Panarin at 32. It's more crazy to think McDavid will stop scoring than it is to think he'll keep this pace for 3 more years.

For me to call Bedard the best player in the league he needs to win multiple scoring titles. That's not happening in 3 years. McDavid won 5 of the last 7 and the two years he didn't win he was 2nd.

Yea. Totally a shame that covid cut two of those years short and you're gonna nit pick another over 123 points in 80 games.

His career pace is 125 points per 82 games.

This is what I'm talking about. That year, 2021-22, Gaudreau and Huberdeau were tied for 2nd behind him. Are they in the convo for best player in the league? I can know what he'll look like at 30. This isn't an average player. He's going to keep scoring 125+ points per year well into his 30s.

This has nothing to do with the best player in the league. McDavid does it every year. He won the scoring title 5 of 9 years he's been in the league. A one off year for someone else doesn't make the they best player in the league. McDaivd also missed 6 games which cost him about 10 points off his total.

The gap isn't closing and the two guys that managed to match him this year are older than he is.

Best player in the league doesn't change year to year. He has 140 more points than the next closest guy since he came into the league.

Is McDavid retiring?

We with a cup with him #20 will be hanging from the rafters.

Toronto sucks though. This has been their MO for nearly a decade now.

Because the team was rebuilding and full of 19-22 year olds. Also even though Panarin sucks, they were 22-14-6 with him and 5-9 without him. Mainly beacuse Pittsburgh is stupid and choose Matt Murray over Fleury. Why did Vegas fire him and go on to win the cup without him?

No. GG played Zib and CK apart for over 300 minutes at 5v5 and Trocheck with so.e combe of CK, Goodrow, Vesey for 200 minutes. Panarin-Trocheck-Laf were together for 866 minutes. He literally never touched that line. GG would have shuffled Laf around during a 3 goal in 31 game slump.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39968275/nhl-playoffs-2024-stanley-cup-schedule-preview-predictions-bracket-flaws

Or Kreider since he's been saving energy all season.

Perreault should play with Zib to handle the puck carrying and distributing so Zib can get back to shooting.

GG constantly shuffled the lines. Never gave Laf any time to work through a slump. Lavi left him there all year regardless. Laf a stretch from about Thanksgiving to February where he only had 3 goals in 31 games. Lavi didn't waver. Outside of that stretch Laf paced nearly 40 goals per 82. Hope Drury can lock him up this season before Laf finds more consistency next year.

Detroit forces OT with 5 seconds left to eliminate the Flyers. Does Torts see the scoreboard before pulling the goalie with 5 minutrs left in a tie game to give the Caps the win and eliminate the Wings?

Aren't all playoff games on national tv?