Oilers’ McDavid becomes fourth NHLer ever to register 30 points in first 10 games
Just when you think you’ve seen it all from Connor McDavid, he continues to one-up himself.
During Thursday night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Edmonton Oilers‘ captain became the fourth player in NHL history to get 30 points in his first 10 games of a season with a five-point night.
McDavid joins some elite company in achieving this feat, as only Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have managed to get 30 points in the first 10 games of a season. Bossy and Gretzky have only achieved the feat once, both doing so in the 1984-85 season, while Lemieux did it three times in 1988-89, 1992-93 and 1995-96, the quickest coming in 1988-89 when he hit 30 points in only eight games. Bossy and Gretzky went on to put up a respective 117 and 208 points in 1984-85, while Lemieux had 199, 160 and 161 in his three respective seasons. This also makes McDavid the first player to achieve this feat in 31 years, and the first to do so in the 21st century.
McDavid achieved the feat early in the third period of the game with the secondary assist on the 4-4 goal from Leon Draisaitl. At the start of a power play, McDavid had won the faceoff to Evan Bouchard, and after the Oilers center received a return pass, he then sent the puck across the ice to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who set up Draisaitl in front of the net for a one-timer goal.
The assist was McDavid’s fourth point in the game, as he had gotten points on all four goals at the time. He had a secondary assist on Draisaitl’s game-opening goal in the first period, a primary assist on Nugent-Hopkins 2-2 goal, and then after the Hurricanes scored two straight goals to take a two goal lead, McDavid scored to cut the lead in half before assisting on the aforementioned goal to hit the milestone. He didn’t stop there though, as after the Canes took the lead again, he scored his second of the night to tie the game with 1:28 to go in the third to cap off the five-point match.
The red hot start to the season gives McDavid eight goals and 23 assists for 31 points through the first 10 games. Based on his current rate, he’s on pace to get 260 points in the first season with 84 games, which would blow Gretzky’s previous record of 215 set in 1985-86 out of the water.
