Teams Have Had 500 Chances To Try, And They Still Can't Figure Out A Way To Slow Down Connor McDavid
John McCreary. Getty Images.Connor McDavid played in his 500th career NHL game last night. I still can't tell if it feels like it's been longer or shorter than that. He still seems like a young kid in the league, but it also feels like he's been absolutely demoralizing defensemen and goalies for an entire decade at this point. In fact, there are only 5 players who have ever demoralized their opponents more throughout their first 500 games in the league.
Perhaps you've heard of a few of those guys before. Decent puck players.
Now slowing down the Edmonton Oilers hasn't proven to be too difficult over the years. They have 2 out of the best…maybe 5-7 current players on the planet and still managed to get swept out of the conference finals last year. But stopping Connor McDavid himself? Well you'd think that after seeing the guy play 499 times before that teams would have at least a halfway decent strategy to slowing him down. But time and time again he proves that's simply not possible.
It's genuinely concerning just how easy he makes this look. The NHL has the best collection of hockey players the world has to offer, and McDavid is constantly making it look like he's playing beer league. The man can literally skate through an entire team whenever he wants. The best course of action for anybody wearing a different color jersey would be to just get out of the way so you don't end up on the highlight.
By the way, throughout their next 500 games (so from 501-1000) Gretzky had 1079 pts, Lemieux had 752pts, Yzerman had 650, Crosby had 572, and Kurri had 549. I know that age has to catch up with everybody at some point, but I don't see it slowing McDavid down over the next 6 years. Gretzky, Lemieux, McDavid. That might just be the order.
Sidenote: McDavid wasn't the only freak doing irresponsibly filthy things on the ice last night.