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EDMONTON, Alberta — Up on the plains of Alberta, they are waiting for history and it nearly came on Tuesday night.
Specifically, they are waiting to see Connor McDavid reach 1,000 points — and become the fastest player to do so since Canadian teams were winning Stanley Cups regularly.
McDavid started Tuesday’s game, the 657th game of his career, on 995 points and finished on 999 after recording a point on all four of Edmonton’s goals in a 4-3 overtime loss for the Islanders.
He will almost assuredly become the fourth-fastest player ever to hit 1,000, with Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy the only ones to do so at a quicker rate.
“I hate to go back in time, because the guys who were playing at the time, that’s what they had,” said Islanders coach Patrick Roy, who played against all three of those luminaries, before the game. “Now we have video, we can watch games, step by step on their skating and in the game. So the game is evolving very fast and you got a lot of ways to analyze teams.
“Certainly to answer your question, he deserves a lot of credit for what he’s doing. Same thing with [Alex] Ovechkin, trying to surpass Wayne Gretzky’s [goals] record. It’s pretty impressive. Nobody thought that would be possible and here they are. These guys are showing a lot of talent.”
McDavid, who is now back on a point-per-game pace with 13 in 13 after what was an allegedly slow start to his season, was nothing short of brilliant in recording eight shots on goal, three assists and a highlight-reel backhand goal against the Islanders.
Of course, they are used to such exploits in Edmonton.
“I don’t remember the first time I saw him play, but I’m seeing a lot of him lately, I can tell you that,” Roy said. “He’s got so much speed and skills. We were watching plays on the power play, moves he could make, even at five on five. When you let him pick up speed, he’s a very dangerous player.”
It initially appeared that Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov would have a roughly 50/50 split of starts, but Tuesday marked the fifth game in six that Sorokin has started, though Patrick Roy said Varlamov likely would play on Thursday night in Vancouver. Sorokin faced 42 shots and made 38 saves.
“We have two really good goalies. I think we knew that Ilya would probably have the upper hand and he’ll play probably more games than Varly,” Roy said. “So nothing is really changing for us.”
Alexander Romanov (upper body) continued to skate in a non-contact jersey Tuesday morning.
