Healthy McDavid quickly moving up scoring ladder

Would you take Connor McDavid against the field in the NHL scoring race?

Not when the Edmonton Oilers captain was sick for several weeks, dragging himself up and down the ice without missing a game, and was playing way under his normal 20 minutes a night.

And not when he was sitting 11th in points going into the Tuesday game in Columbus.

But now he’s third with 39 points, with only nine of those points coming on the power play, and he’s closing fast on Tampa Bay’s Steve Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, the two best forwards (42 points) on the best team in the NHL.

It would be surprising if McDavid’s not No. 1 by Christmas.

The fact is, McDavid hasn’t had his best stuff, but he’s got exactly the same 12 goals and 27 assists after 31 games this year as he had last season.

In the last three games, he’s looked like the real McDavid.

He was very good in Montreal with two assists, awesome in Toronto despite being shut out by Leafs goalie Curtis McElhinney, and he was really rolling with four points against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

To his credit, McDavid never missed a game when he had the flu, which sapped his strength, not to mention plenty of pounds.

“I definitely didn’t feel right,” said McDavid, who never considered calling in sick.

“I was up and down honestly, some days higher than others, unpredictable, but I lost a few,” he said of his weight fluctuation.

McDavid normally averages 21:22 of playing time a game, but he was down in the 16- to 17-minute range when sick, in large part because coach Todd McLellan was trying to conserve his energy, although McDavid thought otherwise.

“When you’re not playing well, you don’t deserve to be on the ice,” said McDavid, who admittedly made some unforced defensive errors, a byproduct of trying to do too much for his struggling team.

But McLellan can certainly see last year’s scoring champion now.

“He’s back up to 20 minutes a night because of his energy level. There were nights when he was down to 15, 16, 17 minutes,” said McLellan.

“Increased energy means you can play hard both ways, offensively and defensively. You win races you normally win and you can get more out of your shift later in it.

“He’s always had great lungs and legs, he could play hard and fast 40 to 45 seconds into a shift, when other guys are fading and looking to get off. This took a lot of out of Connor, and not enough was made of it.”

McLellan said they discussed sitting McDavid at one point, but it never came to that.

“The horse wanted to run, so you let him run,” said McLellan.

The game in Toronto where the Oilers lost 1-0 may have been McDavid’s best outing of the year.

“His approach this season has never wavered. He hasn’t gotten frustrated within our room. But as he goes, we go. He’s the heart of the team, he drives us,” said Mark Letestu.

He’s got the world’s fastest feet back and he’s blowing by people.

Meanwhile, the Oilers’ power play is only now getting out of first gear.

McDavid has nine power play points compared to Stamkos’ 19 and Kucherov’s 16.

KASSIAN’S CASE

Oilers winger Zack Kassian’s hard left hand broke Brandon Dubinsky’s orbital bone in a brief fight off the faceoff late in the Columbus blowout.

“Straightforward fight. Obviously, when it’s 7-2, you don’t need guys running around at your star players,” he said.

“He obliged (dropping the mitts).”