Mcdavid-mackinnon a dream playoff match
It’s entirely possible that Nathan Mackinnon and Connor Mcdavid — who met Saturday night in Edmonton (a 3-2 overtime victory for Colorado) — will face off against each other in the Western Conference final of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And wouldn’t that be fun? The two most explosive players in hockey, Canada’s two best players up front, the two currently battling for a scoring title in the NHL, potentially going head to head to see which team will play for the Cup.
Of course, so much has to happen between now and then for any of this to make sense. But if it does, it’s the marquee matchup the NHL would hope for.
Heading into Sunday’s games, Mackinnon led the NHL in scoring with 116 points, two ahead of Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov and 10 ahead of the annual scoring champion, Mcdavid. Last month, Mcdavid outscored Mackinnon. This month, the opposite has occurred.
Mackinnon is the favourite to win the scoring title and the Hart Trophy as most valuable player. But Mcdavid is right alongside him in the race for the Hart — along with Kucherov, David Pastrnak of Boston and Toronto’s Auston Matthews.
After Saturday night’s win, Mackinnon’s Colorado Avalanche have 14 games left to play. Mcdavid has 17 remaining with the Edmonton Oilers.
What won’t be known for a while is whether either player will be rested down the stretch as both teams have basically assured their playoff status.
“Only one thing matters (to Connor),” said an NHL general manager.
Not the scoring title. Not the Hart. This is Mcdavid’s ninth NHL season. In Mackinnon’s ninth NHL season, the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.
Cities that deserve NHL teams before Atlanta should ever be considered again: Houston, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Quebec City, Toronto (second team), Milwaukee and Boise, Idaho.
And no, I don’t think the NHL should ever consider Boise ... not that Boise is even asking.
I worry about the Winnipeg Jets as a playoff team because, good as Mark Scheifele may be as a centre, he would be second best to Mcdavid, Mackinnon, Jack Eichel, Elias Pettersson, Anze Kopitar and maybe Roope Hintz in a matchup of No. 1 centremen.
It’s no secret why the Ottawa Senators aren’t very good. Never mind how much quality they have on their roster. They’re 16th in goals scored, 25th in goals allowed, 25th in goal differential. You have numbers like that and you have no chance of success.
Doug Armstrong and Bill Guerin have been appointed general managers of Team Canada and Team USA for next year’s Nations Cup tournament and the 2026 Olympic Games. Normally, these appointments go to the best GMS in the game. But it’s entirely possible that Armstrong’s St. Louis Blues and Guerin’s Minnesota Wild could miss the playoffs three years in a row heading to the 2026 Games.
Shouldn’t be long before Armstrong names Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper as head coach of Team Canada. Cooper missed out on the 2022 Games when the NHL pulled out. He wants back in for 2026.
Almost certainly missing from the Stanley Cup playoffs this year: Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jack Hughes, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin, Kirill Kaprizov, and Connor Bedard, who has 12 points his last 10 games and 51 points in his first 53 NHL games.
The best Toronto Blue Jays news from Florida — injuries in the American League East. Never mind that Danny Jansen is hurt and Alek Manoah will be who knows where when the season begins, but consider this: The Yankees will start the season without ace Gerrit Cole and possibly without slugger Aaron Judge.
On an already thin team, the Boston Red Sox have already lost starter Lucas Giolito for the season.
My bet: The Jays are an injury or two away, or other team injuries, from being able to challenge Baltimore in the East.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. turned 25 on Saturday. And doesn’t that seem off to you? This is already his sixth big league season. He’s old in terms of experience, so young of age and we still don’t know exactly what he will be.
If Jays brass Ross Atkins or Mark Shapiro truly wanted Joey Votto on their team, wouldn’t they have signed him — or invited him to camp — weeks earlier? All they did was react to public and online pressure to give Votto, the Toronto kid, the courtesy of an invite to Jays camp.
Keith Pelley’s first question to Masai Ujiri, after taking over as chief executive of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment at the beginning of April, should be: “And what exactly is your plan for this team?”