Regina Leader-Post

OILERS’ McDAVID NO HART CANDIDATE THIS TIME AROUND

Superstar still putting up good numbers, but has to share blame for team’s struggles

- MICHAEL TRAIKOS mtraikos@postmedia.com twitter.com/Michael_Traikos

The easiest — and some might say laziest — thing to do when trying to come up with potential candidates for the Hart Trophy is to simply cut and paste the names atop the scoring list.

Nikita Kucherov. Evgeni Malkin. Connor McDavid.

Based on history, one of those players should be crowned MVP. And based on history, it probably won’t be McDavid — not with that giant asterisk attached to his name.

It’s not because of something nefarious. McDavid hasn’t been involved in a damaging off-theice incident or tested positive for performanc­e-enhancing drugs or anything like that. But in the minds of potential voters, his season is tainted just the same. Call it guilt by associatio­n. McDavid was ranked third in the Art Ross Trophy race with 84 points in 68 games heading into Monday’s action. In 19 games since the all-star break, he is tied for first in goals (18) and second in points (30). He’s having as good an offensive year as he did a year ago when he finished with 100 points and won the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award.

The problem is, while McDavid is having another MVP season, his team is having a forgettabl­e one.

The Edmonton Oilers are not a playoff team. For this reason, McDavid won’t come close to winning an award handed out annually to the “player judged most valuable to his team.”

The last player who won the Hart Trophy while playing on a losing team was Mario Lemieux in 1987-88. That season, the Pittsburgh Penguins finished one point out of a playoff spot. But Lemieux was still crowned MVP, mostly because he had a whopping 70 goals and 168 points in 77 games — 19 more points than Wayne Gretzky.

“I don’t think there was any question that he was the most dominant player that year,” said Sportsnet analyst Craig Simpson, who started the 1987-88 season with the Penguins before getting traded to the Oilers after 21 games. “He had 70 goals at a time when Wayne was dominating the scoring race.”

“We knew we had the most dominant player in the league, we just didn’t have the parts around to support him,” said NHL TV analyst Bob Errey, who spent nine years as Lemieux’s teammate. “For him to be able to do that on a team that really didn’t have the talent in the world, I think that might have actually helped him.”

That hasn’t been the case with McDavid this year. He’s certainly been great and has dominated the nightly highlight reel. But he hasn’t separated himself from the pack like he did a year ago, when he finished 11 points ahead of Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane in the scoring race.

As of Monday, McDavid trailed Kucherov by four points and Malkin by three, but was also only three points ahead of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Philadelph­ia’s Claude Giroux.

With Lemieux, the gap between him and Gretzky was impossible to ignore.

“He was so great, but they were so bad,” said TSN analyst Dave Poulin, who during his career with the Philadelph­ia Flyers had the unenviable task of trying to shut down Lemieux. “We went through a stretch where we simply did not lose to Pittsburgh even with Mario. But don’t forget, we were allowed to win 8-6 in those days.”

Edmonton’s problem is similar: if McDavid doesn’t score, the team doesn’t win. Even when he does score, it’s often not enough.

But it’s not just McDavid’s season affected by his team’s place in the standings.

MacKinnon (81 points) and New Jersey’s Taylor Hall (74 points) are both capable of winning the Hart Trophy this season, just as long as their respective teams qualify for the playoffs. Heading into Monday’s games, the Devils had the first wild-card spot in the East, while the Avalanche were one point ahead of the Kings for the second wild-card spot in the West.

Edmonton was 13th in the

West and 16 points back of a playoff spot. For McDavid, it looks worse because the Oilers had been pre-season favourites to win the Stanley Cup.

I think of him as a top-three player in the league, but I don’t think of him as an MVP this season just because of their team.

With MacKinnon and Hall, it’s the opposite. Both are playing for teams that were awful a year ago and were supposed to be even worse this year. Instead, they are the reasons for this moderate level of success.

No one is lumping McDavid in with the Oilers’ failures. But it’s also difficult to separate him from it.

“Nobody is going to take away his greatness or anything like that,” Errey said, “but I don’t think he’s in the conversati­on for MVP. I think of him as a topthree player in the league, but I don’t think of him as an MVP this season just because of their team and he’s the leader of their team and because they kind of failed this year, to be honest with you.”

In the process, the team failed McDavid as well.

 ?? GREG SOUTHAM ?? Although he’s among the NHL’s scoring leaders, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid is not “in the conversati­on” to repeat as the league’s MVP due to his team’s regression this season, says one analyst.
GREG SOUTHAM Although he’s among the NHL’s scoring leaders, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid is not “in the conversati­on” to repeat as the league’s MVP due to his team’s regression this season, says one analyst.
 ?? CHRIS O’MEARA/AP ?? Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov is having an MVP-type season, leading the league in points for much of the campaign and leading his team to the best record in the Eastern Conference.
CHRIS O’MEARA/AP Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov is having an MVP-type season, leading the league in points for much of the campaign and leading his team to the best record in the Eastern Conference.
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