Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid hit the 50-goal mark for the first time in his career with his second goal of the game on Monday against the visiting Boston Bruins.
McDavid accomplished the feat in his 61st game of the season, becoming the first player to do it in that few of games since Mario Lemieux in 1996.
McDavid opened the scoring in Monday’s game, scoring No. 49 less than three minutes into the game by firing a shot from the left circle. His second goal came late in the second period and tied the game at 2-2. After Klim Kostin beat out an icing call, the big winger fed a pass to McDavid in the slot and he wasted no time dancing around Jeremy Swayman for an easy tap-in goal.
“It’s great I guess, it’s just a number though. Obviously it’s a big one but we’ve got to find a way to come back here,” McDavid said in a second-intermission interview with Sportsnet’s Gene Principe, after the Bruins took a 3-2 lead. “Of course I want to score goals, everybody wants to score goals, and I’m no different.”
After McDavid scored his 50th, teammate Leon Draisaitl collected the puck and made sure to get it to his superstar partner in crime. “Welcome to the club,” he said to McDavid, as Draisaitl previously reached the 50-goal milestone in both 2018-19 and 2021-22.
The Oilers captain’s previous career-best goal total came last season when he scored 44 goals in 80 games. But scoring more goals was something McDavid wanted to do this season, after seeing Auston Matthews score 60 last year.
“This summer I watched a lot of video just on scoring goals and how guys score different ways,” McDavid said in a pre-season interview on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. “For me, it always feels like I’ve got to score a highlight reel goal or do something crazy to score a goal, where you watch a guy like Auston score 60 it’s so impressive just the different ways he scores goals.”
In that same interview, host Elliotte Friedman told McDavid that his teammate Leon Draisaitl thought he could score 60 goals in the NHL if he was unselfish.
“He always tells me that,” McDavid responded. “I guess I got to start by scoring 50 before working my way to 60.”
The 50-goal season is the latest milestone for McDavid, who hit the 800-point plateau earlier this month.
McDavid entered Monday’s game with an NHL-leading 113 points, 25 points ahead of second-place Draisaitl.
The 26-year-old McDavid is the front-runner to win the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP for the third time in his career.
from Sportsnet.ca https://ift.tt/5HQtRcb
Post a Comment