Connor McDavid is having the season of the century
CBC
This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.
With a pair of goals in last night's 3-2 win at Buffalo, Connor McDavid established a new career high of 124 points — with 17 games still to play. Here are some more fun facts about the Edmonton Oilers superstar's mind-blowing 2022-23 season:
Season of the century: Since 2000-01, only two players have finished with as many or more points than McDavid's 124. And just barely. Joe Thornton had 125 in 2005-06 with Boston and San Jose (the Bruins traded Jumbo Joe as he was en route to winning the scoring title and MVP) before Nikita Kucherov topped him with 128 in 2018-19 with Tampa Bay. Again, McDavid still has 17 (!) games left. Barring catastrophe, he's going to obliterate the 21st-century scoring record.
Gretzky. Lemieux. McDavid: With 124 points in just 65 games, McDavid is on pace to finish with 156 points. That would be the most in NHL history by anyone not named Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, surpassing the 155 that Detroit's Steve Yzerman piled up in 1988-89. McDavid is also on pace for the most points by any player since Lemieux's 161 in 1995-96.
State of the Art (Ross): With 27 points during his active 11-game points streak, McDavid has opened up an incredible 28-point lead in the Art Ross Trophy race. To put that chasm in perspective, there's a larger gap behind McDavid and second-place Leon Draisaitl (his Edmonton teammate) than between Draisaitl and 22nd place. Assuming a piano doesn't fall on his head, McDavid is going to win his third consecutive scoring title and the fifth of his career. Only Gretzky (10), Lemieux (6) and Gordie Howe (6) have done it more times than that, and McDavid just turned 26 years old.
WATCH | McDavid's OT winner doubles as record-setting 124th point of season:
Rocket man: By now, hockey fans are pretty accustomed to seeing McDavid win the points title. But now he's decided to become the sport's premier sniper too. With 12 goals in his last eight games, McDavid has boosted his NHL-leading total to 54 (again, in just 65 games) and widened his edge in the Rocket Richard Trophy race to a startling 10 over Boston's David Pastrnak. McDavid, who has never won the Rocket, soared past his previous career high of 44 goals nearly two weeks ago and is now on pace for 68. That would be the most in an NHL season since Lemieux potted 69 in 1995-96. It would also top the career high of 65 for Alex Ovechkin, who's likely to one day surpass Gretzky as the No. 1 goal scorer in NHL history.
Up next: McDavid will put his scoring streak on the line Thursday night in Boston. The league-leading Bruins could be considered the McDavid of teams this season. They're running away with the Presidents' Trophy race by a whopping 13 points and have allowed only 129 goals — 24 fewer than any other team and, incredibly, about half as many as the Anaheim Ducks have surrendered. It should be a good test for McDavid, who answered the challenge last week when he scored both Oiler goals in a 3-2 loss to the Bruins in Edmonton. The Oilers (35-22-8) appear to be in great shape to make the playoffs as at least a wild card, and they're within striking distance of Pacific Division-leading Vegas.
Canada's Kevin Drury battled his way to a gold medal that left him in tears at a World Cup ski cross event on Friday in Val Thorens, France.
Soccer fans have accused FIFA of a "monumental betrayal" after latest prices for World Cup tickets began to circulate on Thursday.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is “disappointed” that the main arena slated to host ice hockey at February’s Olympics isn’t yet completed with less than two months to go before the Games are scheduled to be played.
A two-year suspension from competitive swimming has forced Penny Oleksiak to answer questions about drug use, train by herself in public pools and defend her legacy as Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.
Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.