McDavid hits another hat trick

Connor McDavid didn’t just score three goals on April 8 in San Jose. He had a hand in all five Edmonton goals in a 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks, finishing with a hat trick and two assists in one of those nights where the puck seemed to follow him everywhere. (nhl.com) That hat trick was the 15th of McDavid’s National Hockey League career, and the official Edmonton Oilers site logged it as another five-point explosion from their captain. The game was played at SAP Center, and Edmonton left with two standings points it badly needed. (nhl.com) McDavid’s first goal came in the opening period, and his third completed the hat trick in the third period, which is why the arena reaction hit all at once near the end instead of building slowly over the night. A hat trick in hockey means one player scores three goals in a single game, which still stands out even for stars who score 40 or 50 in a season. (nhl.com) The bigger trick with McDavid is that his goals are only half the problem for opponents. His player page showed 43 goals and 83 assists through 77 games after this one, so teams have to defend both his shot and his passing on nearly every shift. (nhl.com) That is why a five-point game from him can look less like one hot shooting night and more like a full-system breakdown. Against San Jose, every Edmonton goal ran through McDavid, which is the hockey version of one quarterback throwing every touchdown pass and also running in the rest. (nhl.com) The timing mattered almost as much as the goals. ESPN’s recap said the win moved Edmonton into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division, so this was not empty late-season stat padding in a game that meant nothing. (espn.com) McDavid has built a career where even rare things start to feel routine, but 15 hat tricks is still a short list kind of number. Hockey-Reference tracks hat tricks league-wide each season because they remain unusual events, even in a sport built around elite scorers playing 82 games. (hockey-reference.com) What keeps these nights turning heads is the mix of volume and control. Three goals gets the highlight clips, but the two assists, the five total points, and the fact that Edmonton’s whole offense flowed through No. 97 are what made this one feel like McDavid had the remote control for the game. (nhl.com)