MacKINNON’S STOCK IS HIGH
But several NHL stars still in slumps
The last time they met, Sidney Crosby came away with bragging rights. Mind you, the battleground was a Tim Horton’s drive-thru, with customer after customer declaring that Crosby — and not necessarily Nathan MacKinnon — was the most famous hockey player out of Cole Harbour, N.S.
Take a survey today and you might get a different response.
In his third season in the NHL, MacKinnon is in the top-5 in league scoring with eight goals and 20 points in 18 games. Crosby, meanwhile, is way down the list with just two goals and nine points in 18 games.
“I guess we’ll see how it finishes,” said MacKinnon, who travels to Pittsburgh to play against Crosby and the Penguins on Thursday. “I’m sure Sid’s going to get pretty hot here, hopefully not against us next game. But I don’t really think about it. He’s just a buddy of mine. I hope he gets more points than me this year. He deserves it.”
It has been an up-and-down few seasons in the league for MacKinnon, who scored 63 points as a rookie to win the Calder Trophy in 2013-14 but then finished with only 38 points last year. Now in the final year of his entry-level contract, MacKinnon is emerging as the franchise player the Avalanche envisioned when they made him a No. 1 pick.
“Puck seems to be finding me more this season. That comes from playing well. You get a little bit more luck and things like that,” said MacKinnon, who is already looking ahead to signing a long-term deal to remain in Colorado. “When you don’t have a contract next season, you think about it a little bit. Hopefully, I’ll be here for a long time.”
Crosby is not the only star player who is undergoing some early-season scoring struggles.
Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek, who finished in the top-5 in league scoring last season, has just one goal and nine points in 18 games. Columbus’ Nick Foligno, who was in the top-10 in scoring, has one goal and seven points in 19 games. And Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler are both stuck on one goal.
Then there is Nazem Kadri. While the Toronto Maple Leafs centre has taken 81 shots this season (only Washington’s Alex Ovechkin has fired the puck more), he has a 1.2 shooting percentage and just one goal to show for his effort.
For a player whose career shooting percentage is 11 per cent, the hockey gods have essentially robbed Kadri of another eight goals.
They tried the Stanley Cup champions against the rest of the league’s top players. They pitted North Americans against Europeans.
They even plied the players with alcohol and had captains take turns picking players as though they were playing a game of pond hockey.
So it is no surprise that the NHL All-Star Game is again changing its format.
The league will institute a 3-on3 tournament featuring a team from each of the four divisions. The winning team from each conference will meet in a championship game, with the eventual winner reportedly taking home $1-million US.
So which division has the best trio?
The Atlantic could feature Boston’s David Krejci, Montreal’s Max Pacioretty and Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson; the Metropolitan could have New York Islanders’ John Tavares with New York Rangers’ Mats Zuccarello and Carolina’s Justin Faulk; and the Pacific might roll out a line with Edmonton’s Taylor Hall, St. Louis’ Vladimir Tarasenko and San Jose’s Brent Burns.
But the Central Division has to be the current favourite, both for firepower and familiarity. Dallas’ Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and John Klingberg have combined for 73 points, while Chicago’s Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin and Brent Seabrook (59 points). Even a line of Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (20 points), Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler (20 points) and Minnesota’s Ryan Suter (15 points) has scored more than any of the other division’s potential trios.
With Connor McDavid out for another couple of months, it looks like the Edmonton Oilers will again not have a Calder Trophy winner despite selecting first overall in four of the last six NHL Entry Drafts.
But Leon Draisaitl is making a case as the league’s top sophomore.
The 20-year-old is not eligible for the Calder Trophy, because he played in 37 games last season (the rookie cut-off is 25 games). But with five goals and 13 points in eight games, Draisaitl is following in the footsteps of Jordan Eberle (76 points in his second season) and Taylor Hall (53 points), who needed a year under their belt before breaking out.
If anything, it bodes well for McDavid next year. The rivalry has been renewed. Heading into Wednesday night’s OHL action, Erie Otters’ Dylan Strome was second in league scoring with 34 points in 16 games and Mitch Marner of the London Knights was fifth with 32 points in 16 games. For the close friends, who grew up on-ice enemies — “We used to hate each other,” Marner, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, told Postmedia News in June — it is nothing new.
Strome and Marner finished 1-2 in league scoring last season, respectively.
And they went third and fourth overall in last June’s NHL Entry Draft. But that friendly rivalry will take a back seat at the upcoming world junior championship, where Strome and Marner could be linemates and are expected to play big roles for Canada. “He’s got a chance now to prove that he is a leader,” former Otters GM Sherry Bassin said recently of Strome, an Arizona Coyotes prospect. “He’s going to be fine. He’s such a great player.”