On Tuesday (Feb. 13), Connor McDavid had one of those legendary performances he seems to have at least a couple of times every season, recording a pair of career highs with six assists and a plus/minus rating of plus-6 as he led the Edmonton Oilers to an 8-4 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Rogers Place.
Related: McDavid Has Record-Breaking Night of Assists vs Red Wings
The six helpers are tied for fifth most in a single regular season game in NHL history, and McDavid became just the fifth player ever to have at least six assists and a plus/minus rating of plus-6 or higher in the same game.
McDavid Surpasses 600 Career Assists
McDavid’s third apple, coming on a goal by Dylan Holloway just 44 seconds into the third period, was the 600th of his career, coming in his 616th game. Only three other players in NHL history have reached 600 assists in fewer games.
The Oilers captain added three more assists before the game ended, to equal the Oilers’ franchise record of four assists in a single period.
Oh, and McDavid also matched his personal best with six points, becoming the first Oilers player since the 1980s with multiple games of at least six points in his career. It was one of the most magical nights in his NHL career.
But while McDavid’s play is often described as supernatural, that might actually have been the case on Tuesday. What separates this performance from any other by McDavid is its uncanny synchronicity with a certain performance by the only other player in Oilers history that’s on the same level as him.
Gretzky Spread Love on Valentine’s Day
It was virtually 38 years earlier, on Valentine’s Day in 1986, at a rink a couple dozen blocks away, that Wayne Gretzky also had one of those magical nights.
At a place that is now inhabited only by hockey’s ghosts, Northlands Coliseum, the then-Oilers captain recorded seven assists and a plus/minus rating of plus-6 to lead the Oilers to an 8-2 victory over the Quebec Nordiques.
That made Gretzky the first forward in an NHL game with at least six assists and a plus/minus rating of plus-6 or better. On Tuesday, McDavid became the second.
The parallels don’t stop there, however. Just as McDavid did on Feb. 13, 2024, Gretzky had four assists in the third period of Edmonton’s blowout victory on Feb. 14, 1986. They now share in that record.
One of Gretzky’s assists against Quebec was on a goal by defenceman Kevin Lowe, who ended a drought of 107 games without a goal. On Tuesday, McDavid helped set up blueliner Cody Ceci who scored for the first time in 127 regular season games.
Finally, like McDavid against the Red Wings, Gretzky didn’t have a goal against the Nordiques. The Great One left all the goal scoring to his talented teammates, with seven different Oilers accounting for the team’s eight goals. On Tuesday, Edmonton’s eight goals came from seven different players, with only Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tallying twice.
Gretzky and McDavid Speak the Same Language
Even the post-game soundbites from Gretzky and McDavid sounded alike, deflecting credit and concerning themselves only with the result, not the individual stats.
“I thought I got a couple lucky (assists),” McDavid said on Tuesday. “Nuge makes a good play on a couple (goals). I’m playing with some great players, obviously, and tonight was a good night.”
“If a guy is in a better position to score than I am, I’m going to pass it to him,” a characteristically humble Gretzky said after the 1986 win against Quebec. “It doesn’t matter to me (who scores). That’s the way it went tonight.”
One can choose to believe in coincidences, or one can choose to believe in fate. The hockey universe works in mysterious ways. If McDavid is truly the second coming of Gretzky, then No. 97 will do just as No. 99 did, and bring the Stanley Cup to Edmonton. That hasn’t happened yet, but this season’s team seems closer to the championship than any in McDavid’s career, and the Oilers will continue their quest when they return to action tonight (Feb. 15) against the St. Louis Blues.