Editor’s note: A previous version of this article contained insensitive references to war crimes. They have been removed and The Athletic apologizes for the lack of judgment.
It’s a historic milestone that the whole hockey world has been keeping its eyes on.
One of the greatest players in franchise history trying to chase down a number he’ll never forget when his career is over. Sure, he can be a little monotonous and doesn’t show much personality but it’s part of his charm. When No. 99 was notched, everybody was rooting for the big 100.
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But enough about Alex Edler’s chase for 100 career goals.
Apparently, the attention was on some guy named Connor McDavid and his quest for 100.
The math required 13 points in four games against the Canucks for McDavid to hit 100 points. That seemed in reach, albeit improbable. But when he had a four-point night to open the set Monday, you knew it was on. When he followed it up with another two points Tuesday … well, by then the outcome was as inevitable as the Canucks falling in this summer’s coming draft lottery.
These are the Canucks, after all, and we’re used to being on the other end of historic milestones.
Every single Canucks fan knew McDavid would get his 100th point against Vancouver. It is what it is.
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) May 9, 2021
And so McDavid completed his quest to 100 in Edmonton’s 4-3 victory Saturday over the Canucks in what was probably the most predictable four-point game in NHL history.
Let’s get it started (ha) let’s get it started (in here)
Tired: “Will McDavid reach 100 points by the end of the season?”
Expired: “Will McDavid reach 100 points by the end of this game?”
Inspired: “Will McDavid reach 100 points by the end of the first period?”
— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) May 9, 2021
If you weren’t sure before the game that McDavid was going to hit 100, the first minute sealed the deal. Like there’s no way any Canucks fan could have looked at this and thought anything other than, “Oh no, he’s gonna do it, isn’t he?” He who must not be named just waltzes in and snaps a quick one.
Best don’t try this at home kids
Best breakouts under pressure
It’s only been three games and he’s playing a sheltered role so I have to be careful not to set the bar too high, but Jack Rathbone looks legit.
If he can play the way he has so far wearing blue and green, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be a regular on the backend next season.
Rathbone’s brought foreign concepts like “poise” and “breaking the puck out without an icing, turnover or a panic rim around the glass” to the backend. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed so far is how he subtly creates more space for himself on exit attempts. Rathbone isn’t just looking to get rid of the puck at the first chance he gets, he’s got the composure to hang onto it to create a more favourable exit scenario.
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Here’s Exhibit A where he allows two Edmonton forecheckers to pinch on him behind the net before comfortably playing to the middle of the ice. Notice how Rathbone hangs on for a split second longer instead of getting rid of it right away to draw the forecheckers in toward him. That creates space for the clean breakout:
In the second period, he showed another example of that. He picks up the pick with lots of traffic around him — a situation where most players would just rim the puck around the boards.
But Rathbone has the poise to slow down, get his head up to assess his options and then skates a couple of strides to the outside to create space to slip a pass into the middle.
The result: a neat little exit with control that leads to a scoring chance.
The 100th plea to get Bo Horvat some help
Matthew Highmore works hard and is a fine bottom-of-the-lineup grinder — I have no problem with him. The fact that he’s having to play up the lineup isn’t his fault. And while it’s not ideal, I don’t know if you can really fault the coaching staff, either, because they tried really hard to make Kole Lind work in the top-six.
I’m not going to lie though, it’s kind of depressing to hear the broadcast mention the “Bo Horvat line” and then seeing Highmore jump over the boards like a young Jayson Megna sharing offensive zone possessions with Quinn Hughes like this:
Big bad McDavid
Look at this evil man bulldozing through the neutral zone against a COVID-19 ravaged Canucks team and scoring points.
Think of the children, Connor.
Best effort
If we’re being honest, this was a pretty good game, all things considered, for Canucks fans. The loss helps the lottery odds, there was entertainment on both sides and the Canucks didn’t really roll over at any point. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can bully any team when they’re at their best, so the fact that Vancouver hung around considering what the team’s gone through deserves some stick taps.
And man, the Canucks pushed hard in the second. Nils Höglander cleverly faking a shot (watch how Ethan Bear bites) and then finding Hughes for a goal was pretty to watch, even if it was called back for offside.
Later, in a remarkable twist of irony, J.T. Miller picked off a cross-ice pass to spring himself on a breakaway. Nobody was more relieved to see Miller score it than A) the broadcast guy who’s responsible for the rink level hot mic and B) Miller’s stick.
The return of the real Mike Smith
In a historic night of milestones and rare accomplishments, the Canucks made sure to net one of their own called “bottom-six scoring.”
The goal was about as pretty as you’d expect — the result of a completely broken play in the slot — but they all count the same. Travis Boyd’s shot somehow went through Mike Smith as Edmonton’s goaltending is showing cracks again has rounded into playoff form the past couple of games.
OK, how do you actually stop this?
McDavid on the rush against Edler and Tyler Myers once again sounds like a war crime. If you aren’t going to think of the children, you should at least have mercy on the elderly but nope, Connor is a robotic assassin.
Best fighting fire with fire
It’s been a battle of elite offensive forces in the past two games. Sure, the Canucks might not be able to stop McDavid but the Oilers can’t contain Tyler Graovac, either. After sniping a goal Thursday from an impossible angle, Graovac roofed one off the rush. The swag of this man nodding his head in the celebration as if to casually say, “Just another snipe, no big deal” is something else.
The 100th point
For the record, let me just say that Cole Cassels would have never allowed this to happen:
The next 100 countdown watch
Connor McDavid only 96 points in the 3rd period away from getting 100 tonight
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) May 9, 2021
Best flashback of the scrum lord
“I’m not going to be a fan until I’m croaking. I don’t know what you want me to say.” – Thatcher Demko on how he’ll look back on this night in the future #Canucks
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) May 9, 2021
Best undrafted feel-good story
The 2009 NHL draft was approaching and 17-year-old Nate Schmidt had high hopes.
Schmidt’s capped off his high school run with St. Cloud Cathedral by notching 21 goals and 45 points in 25 games from the backend. It’s that breakout year that sparked heavy interest from scouts.
“The scouts would show up at random games and Nate and I had discussions like, do you want to know if I see one, do you want me to talk to him,” said Eric Johnson, Schmidt’s high school coach. “For a while, it was like, ‘Nah, I just want to play’ but then there’s a couple times where I was like, ‘Hey dude, they’re here. Hunker down a little more.’
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Familiar faces from familiar teams kept returning to see more. Schmidt’s camp, therefore, believed they had an understanding of which teams were most likely to call his name that June.
“I was fairly confident he was going to get drafted and fairly high,” Johnson said. “Chicago, Calgary, the Rangers, Boston was around a lot. St. Louis was around a lot, like a lot. At that time, (Alex) Pietrangelo was young, Erik Johnson was young, I remember doing the math and I was like, man they got like four D that are under 22-years-old that are playing already.”
The first yellow flag for Schmidt came from an informal draft interview.
“I remember meeting a scout at a Perkins in my hometown, a little breakfast spot,” Schmidt said. “He was doing an interview with me and I remember telling him like, ‘Man, I think I can really go in the top couple rounds’ and you should have seen the look on his face.”
Schmidt shrugged off the odd reaction from the scout. Not only did he still think he was getting drafted but he was confident he would be picked in the second or third round. He knew his potential and what he could offer an NHL team.
June 26, 2009, the first day of the NHL Draft, rolled around and nothing happened. It wasn’t a big surprise, he knew a first-round selection was highly unlikely. But then Day 2 came and went and still nothing — he went undrafted.
“I was devastated,” Schmidt said. “I couldn’t believe it. I saw guys I knew being drafted and thinking, ‘Man, I’m pretty close to that player’ and like, ‘Wow, can’t believe that guy went in the second round.’ As a kid, you think it’s the end-all, be-all, that if I don’t get drafted, I don’t make it.”
At that point, Schmidt thought his NHL dream was over. It’s Johnson, Schmidt’s lifelong mentor to this day, who tried to help keep perspective.
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“I was monitoring things online thinking it’s gonna happen and I remember even saying like, if it gets past the third round, maybe it’s better if you’re not drafted,” Johnson said. “I said, ‘Hey man, there’s tons of people that get drafted and we never hear from.’
“You’re going to have an opportunity when you’re in college and it’s like being recruited again and you’re gonna have a chance if you perform very well to pick the place that suits you well.
“It opens up way more opportunities, you don’t want to be trapped as someone’s fourth- or fifth-round pick when there are other teams that could benefit from having you.”
Despite that rational perspective, going undrafted continued to weigh on Schmidt when he became a freshman at the University of Minnesota. He didn’t have the pedigree of being an NHL Draft pick entering the NCAA and that affected the opportunity he was given in Year 1. Schmidt was a regular healthy scratch and had to be moved to forward just to get into the lineup when he did. He looked far from being an impact NCAA player, let alone a future NHLer.
“You’re around all of these guys that have been drafted and you think, ‘Oh, they’re only playing these guys because they’re drafted,’” Schmidt said.
Schmidt had a victim mentality stemming from the draft that held him back. The turning point for his career was when he realized that he needed to take 100 percent responsibility for his situation.
So after sitting out the last game of the year in the playoffs, Schmidt took a picture of the door of the lounge room that scratched players watch games from. He set it as the wallpaper of his phone, determined to never walk into that lounge room for a game again.
“You realize that there’s nobody else to blame but yourself,” Schmidt said. “Step 1 was realizing I came in a little overweight. I didn’t really realize what it meant to train like a real athlete, not just like a couple wrist curls and bench press.”
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The rest is history.
Of course, Johnson knew it all along.
“I remember having a discussion with an NHL scout at the state tournament (before the draft) and he was questioning Nate’s skating,” Johnson said. “I chuckled a little bit and I said, ‘OK, what are you concerned about?’ and he says, ‘Well, I’m not sure how fast he really is.’
“It was comical because the thing you’re going to question him on is probably his No. 1 attribute. I remember they did a testing run in Washington and he blew it up on the skating piece and I’m like, man, I would do anything to find that scout.”
Schmidt’s inaugural campaign as a Canuck has been rather forgettable. He can and should be better. But while the story of Schmidt’s season in Vancouver fits the theme of the team’s overall disappointing season, his journey to the NHL remains a tale to be celebrated.
It’s a rare feel-good story to share in a year where those have been few and far between.
(Photo of Thatcher Demko, James Neal, Jack Rathbone: Perry Nelson / USA Today)
