Traik-eotomy
Don’t look now, but Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel are red-hot — and it wouldn’t be surprising if they led the Penguins on another Cup run ... Rick Nash would make sense for Pens ... Would the Coyotes and Maple Leafs draft 2015 picks differently?
It was at the NHL all-star game when I asked Steven Stamkos
if it was strange to see Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid
both outside the top 10 in scoring.
His answer: “I think you can ask that question at the end of the year and we’ll see if it’s true. If I was a betting man, I’d say that they will be in the top five.”
Turns out we didn’t have to wait until the end of the year. Two weeks later, Nikita Kucherov
isn’t scoring at the torrid pace he once was and MacKinnon is out with a shoulder injury. Meanwhile, Crosby and McDavid are both on offensive tears.
Crosby, who had 35 points in his first 40 games, has 25 points in 15 games since Jan. 1. McDavid, who was in 13th place overall before Monday night’s five-point explosion, is now tied for third.
This is what the great players do. They eventually rise to the top. Of course, it’s not just Crosby and McDavid who are enjoying second-half surges.
Phil Kessel, who has 23 points in his past 15 games, is in second place and trailing Kucherov by one point in the Art Ross Trophy race, while Evgeni Malkin (26 points in 15 games) is in third place. Not surprisingly, the trio has the Penguins looking like the same team that won back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Since Jan. 1, the Penguins are tied with the Bruins with a leaguebest 10 wins. They have also scored the most goals (53), have the best power play (36.6%) and the second-best penalty kill.
Like Stamkos said, don’t bet against Crosby. Further to that, don’t bet against Pittsburgh and a potential three-peat.
KESSEL KORNER
Strange to think that Kessel could win the Art Ross Trophy in a year whn he wasn’t even invited to the all-star game. Then again, even if he were to lead the league in scoring, what are the chances he gets more votes than Crosby or Malkin for MVP? ... The more I think about it, the more sense it makes for the Penguins to trade for Rick Nash at the deadline. He’s not the 42-goal scorer he was in 2014-15, but he’d still be a perfect winger for Crosby. And after losing Chris Kunitz, Matt Cullen and Ron Hainsey in the off-season, he’d fill a much-needed leadership void.
GREAT WASTE
On pace for close to another 100point season, the talk is that the Oilers are wasting a great season from McDavid. But it happens more than you think. If he were to win his second straight Art Ross Trophy, it would be the fourth time in the past 15 years that the scoring leader was on a non-playoff team.
The others were Dallas’ Jamie Benn in 2014-15, Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis in 2012-13 and Calgary’s Jarome Iginla in 200102. Still, it’s not a good look on GM Peter Chiarelli . ... Could this be the year where the winner of the Selke Trophy also wins the Hart Trophy? Patrice Bergeron, who was the mid-season award winner for top defensive forward, is looking like a lock for his fifth Selke. And with so many potential MVP candidates splitting votes