Arace: Matthews, McDavid and MacKinnon have ushered the NHL into a new era of speed, skill
The NHL trade deadline, which came and went last week, gave fans pause to think about the arms race in the wicked Western Conference, the fortification of Florida and Carolina (among others) in the East and the thought that the Toronto Maple Leafs are doomed to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Oh, and Pittsburgh is in worse shape than Columbus right now.
The deadline means poring over rosters and standings and, ultimately, statistics. Such stats. Toronto’s Auston Matthews, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon are not only defining a new era of scoring, they are also trending toward all-time greatness. If you are a hockey fan, you should feel fortunate to be drawing breath and paying witness.
Matthews had 54 goals in 63 games coming out of the weekend. While his pace cooled over the previous week, he remains in a rarified atmosphere. His goals-per-game rate, .857 as of Tuesday morning, still had him on pace for 69 for the season. Might 70 be possible? It has been a minute.
Nobody has scored 70 or more since Buffalo’s Alexander Mogilny and Winnipeg’s Teemu Selanne had 76 apiece in 1992-93. In the 31 years since, only six players have touched 60: Florida's Pavel Bure (60 in 1993-94), Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux (69 in 1995-96), Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin (65, his career-high, in 2007-08), Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos (60 in 2011-12), Matthews himself (60 in 73 games in 2021-22) and McDavid (64 last season).
Mogilny and Selanne played at the end of a high-scoring era defined by Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. You might call it the “Expansion Era.” It started in 1967-68, when the league doubled to 12 teams and ended in the early 1990s, by which point there were 26 teams.
If Michael Stipe was to describe the era lyrically, his song might go something like this: “Curved blades, Esposito, Bobby Orr. Teams through a revolving door. Talent pool is running dry, goalies do not butterfly, Islanders and Oilers are riding high. The Great One, red lamp lighting. The Magnificent One, red lamp lighting. Lighting! Fighting! Lighting! Fighting!”
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. An average NHL game included six to eight goals during the “Expansion Era.”
Then, things changed. Maybe it started with video tape and other more advanced forms of scouting. The art of offense was met with blunt defense, which is coachable. Neutral-zone traps became de rigueur. Goaltenders got better – the butterfly style, while nothing new, was refined – and their equipment was enlarged. Although European talent was flowing into the league, a Canadian style of tight-checking, obstructive and defense-oriented hockey clogged the ice. Scoring dropped to fewer than six goals a game.
The 21st century has brought rule changes designed to cut down obstruction; increase the speed of the game; and give terrific athletes, who are shaped by modern nutritional and workout regimens, a better chance to showcase their copious skills. The league now has an international talent pool from which to draw. Coaches still coach defense, everybody still blocks shots and goalies are bigger and better than ever (and their nets need to be bigger) ... but even amid the traffic of the modern game, talent is shining through.
It’s a “Golden Age,” at least until the next one. We haven't even mentioned Colorado defenseman Cale Makar.
MacKinnon is averaging 1.708 points/game which puts him on pace for 140 points. Lemieux had 161 points in 1995-96. Only one player has had more than 128 – McDavid, last season (153).
If you add Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (128 points in 2018-19, and 107 points through 64 games this season) to McDavid, Matthews and MacKinnon, you’re looking at a group of players who have in recent seasons been scoring at rates that surpass Sidney Crosby’s peak seasons.
McDavid’s point rates for 2020-21 (1.875) and 2022-23 (1.708) are in the top 32 all-time and are comparable to Mike Bossy’s or Guy LaFleur’s best. Obviously, they are not in same league with Gretzky and Lemieux, who had 18 of the top 25 single-season points-per-game marks in the 107-year history of the league. While it’s difficult to compare eras, it’s fair to say that what McDavid is doing helps define greatness in an era of advanced technology, modern coaching techniques, incredible athletes and cat-quick, 6-foot-5 goaltenders.
We might be watching the GOAT here.
And Matthews is a freak. Teams are wicked deep now; bottom-six forwards and depth defensemen can all play; and replacement-level talent is separated by slivers. His production – particularly when measured in goals/60 minutes (2.44) is staggering this season, as it was in 2021-22 (2.39). These are numbers straight out of the 1980s, like the R.E.M. album “Document.” And I feel fine.
It’s too bad the Leafs, whose defense is heavy on third-pair plumbers, will be eliminated in the first round by either the Boston Bruins or the Florida Panthers. And it’s a shame the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to miss the playoffs again this year, and next year, and the year after that. A damned shame. Terrible.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews fuel NHL renaissance
