There are between 50 and 53 games left in the season for most teams, and Connor McDavid has finally broached the top five in league scoring with 39 points. He has climbed to No. 3, just behind the Tampa duo of Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, who lead with 42 points each.
Here's the wager: You can have the field in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. Or you can take Connor McDavid.
Which bet are you taking?
"I feel good," McDavid finally said, after successive questions about the illness he carried through the first 20-some games — and the effect it had on his game — had reached a tedious ending.
He simply was not going to take the bait on discussing how sick he'd been. It was the same way when his coaches had talked about resting him. He would have no part of that either.
"We discussed it, but the horse wants to run," head coach Todd McLellan shrugged. "So, let him run."
In one dominant four-point night at Columbus Tuesday, McDavid moved from 11th to third in the NHL scoring race. He had six points on a just-completed three-game road trip (which included being shut out 1-0 at Toronto), and for the first time since opening night of the season the Oilers captain truly looked like the player who won both the Art Ross and Hart Trophies in 2016-17.
"To me his approach has been the same. He hasn't wavered, or gotten frustrated, but when he's going the team goes. He's the heart of our team," said Mark Letestu, who acknowledges the extra gear. "He drives us. When he's going like that it's certainly easier to go strap 'em on and go play as hard as he does."
McDavid had a flu, and then some strep throat. Then another flu. So he was weak, and unable to get the kind of sleep necessary to run the most efficient hockey skating machine in the word today. He played through it without missing a game — and somehow remained at a point-per-game pace — but only now that we see him reach his familiar level do we realize how far below his best he's been so far in 2017-18.
"It took a lot out of him," McLellan said. "There probably wasn't enough made of the first illness. The second one was just a common one that everyone else had, but you combine the two and it takes a little while."
The Oilers are all but sunk in the race for the playoffs, given a 3.9 per cent chance of making the dance, according to the web site Sports Club Stats, prior to beating Columbus. But if there is one player on earth who can lead a team to make up seven points and leapfrog six teams, it is this captain.
He didn't have a point in Toronto, but left the Leafs players in awe.
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