McDavid hits 130 points

Connor McDavid went into San Jose on April 9 and touched every part of the game sheet: three goals, two assists, and all three Edmonton power-play goals running through him in a 5-2 win over the Sharks. By the end of the night, Edmonton’s captain had moved to 133 points in 79 games and opened a six-point lead over Nikita Kucherov in the scoring race. (nhl.com) That kind of night sounds made up until you look at the season log. McDavid was already at 126 points through 77 games before this road trip, and then added seven more points across his next two games to get to 133 with three games left on Edmonton’s schedule. (nhl.com, hockey-reference.com) In hockey, 100 points is the line that usually tells you a star has had a huge season. McDavid has now cleared 100 points in eight different seasons, and his 133-point pace puts this year alongside the biggest offensive seasons of his own career, including 153 points in 2022-23 and 132 in 2023-24. (nhl.com) The way he got there against San Jose says as much as the total. He scored his 100th career power-play goal, recorded his 15th career hat trick, and had a hand in every Edmonton goal with the extra attacker, which is the hockey version of one player running an entire late-game offense by himself. (nhl.com) Edmonton needed every bit of it because this was not a relaxed April game. The Oilers were 40-29-10 after the win, sitting first in the Pacific Division with 90 points, and the two points from San Jose kept them on top heading into a Saturday, April 11 game against the Los Angeles Kings. (hockey-reference.com, nhl.com) That is why McDavid is back in the Hart Trophy conversation every time he does this. The Hart Memorial Trophy goes to “the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team,” and McDavid has already won it three times, including in 2023 when he took 195 of 196 first-place votes. (nhl.com, nhl.com) The tactical problem for opponents is simple to describe and miserable to solve. If you back off, McDavid turns open ice into a rush chance; if you pressure him, he slips a pass through the seam; if you take a penalty, Edmonton’s power play gets him on the puck with one fewer defender in the picture. (nhl.com) And this is not empty scoring on a team drifting through the spring. Edmonton had scored 275 goals, fifth-most in the National Hockey League, while allowing 262, and McDavid’s production has been the engine that keeps a flawed defensive team in position to chase a division title instead of just trying to survive into the playoffs. (hockey-reference.com) So the headline is bigger than one five-point box score. With 133 points in 79 games, a scoring lead over Kucherov, and another race-tightening win for Edmonton, McDavid has turned the last week of the regular season into the same question the league keeps asking every spring: how do you build a game plan around stopping the one player who breaks every normal one. (nhl.com, nhl.com)