Mackinnon and McDavid are different players, but the projection of the avalanche along with Mackinnon’s development as well as other young players in their system has made them into a cup contender, in Mackinnon’s 7th season. A similar model for the Oilers is entirely possible
Oilers fans: what is your most memorable playoff moment in the last 25 years? Reply with others. Honorable mentions for me are Draisaitl hat trick game 6 CSF in '17, Hemsky GWG 1:06 left in game 6 CQF in '06, Horcoff 3OT GWG in CSF game 3 in '06, and McDavid's first playoff goal.
Steve Kozari reffing the game tonight. Was also the ref who gave McDavid an unsportsmanlike like after he told the ref to “go upstairs” after a shootout goal. Also the ref who called Eakin for a 5 minute major in game 7 of VGK vs SJS last spring. Brutal
Leon finished one goal shy of earning a tie for the Rocket Richard trophy with Ovechkin.
Ovi had 3 empty net goals this year, Leon had 0.
Both had 5 GWG, caps won 13 more games though.
#L50N
@SportMajor Two minutes of short handed hockey, pretty difficult to score when you’re down a man. Ovechkin hasn’t scored a short handed goal since 2009
@SportMajor Leon averages about 23 minutes a night. Ovechkin about 21. However, Ovechkin doesn’t play penalty kill. Leon does play penalty kill, where he picked up two unassisted short handed goals this season
@CapsGirl08 Agreed, obviously don’t have an exact stat but other than RNH, Leon was probably the most relied upon centre in the defensive zone for those kinds of scenarios. Oil didn’t score a lot of empty net goals in general though
Before people say “yeah but Leon plays with McDavid” -
Ovi plays with some of the best passers in the NHL in Kuznetsov, Backstrom, and Carlson.
Leon spent a considerable amount of the season with Chiasson, Rieder, and Lucic on his wings.
McDavid assisted on 29 of his 50 goals.
Don’t see how this can be a playoff team for another 2-3 years. When your generational talent, a top 15 forward in the league, and a couple other players all have career years, and you still miss the postseason? I don’t see how this is fixable short term.
Peter Chiarelli has handcuffed this team and the future looks bleak because of it. Going to need a miracle to get out of the trench he dug the organization into. Sad and disappointing.
This is a garbage, classless tweet. @Sportsnet would absolutely love to see if they did this with any other Canadian franchise and their stats if they were in the same position. @SportsnetSpec@GenePrincipe this is a brutal look for you guys too.