Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
That is not all of it. MacKinnon plays a type of game that is hugely effective in the playoffs that McDavid never has. Like I said above, McDavid is bar-none the best player in the world on the rush, and he is the best one-on-one player in the NHL. But the thing is, while MacKinnon may not be quite as good at playing this way, he is damn-well nearly as good—he can basiclally do the same things Mchobo does on the rush. Then add to that the fact that he can cycle better than anyone, he can protect the puck better than anyone, he can find "soft" spots on the ice better than anyone, and he can and will run people over and outmuscle opposing players to do what he wants to do with the puck all night long. McDavid just doesn't do any of these things nearly as well as MacKinnon, and I don't believe it is purely a product of will.
|
I think Mackinnon also has the superior shot and IQ.
Mackinnon has 37 pms which is high for a top line player, but not a surprise given his style, so that's acceptable. Landeskog and Rantanen have similar numbers. But McDavid has 20 minutes playing a non-aggressive style, more than, for example, Scheifele, Aho, Barkov, Huberdeau, Panarin, Pasternak, etc. I'd bet they are lazy penalties.
+/- is a lousy stat but McDavid has 40 more points than Mackinnon and an almost identical +/-, which is funny.