Dangle Days Wednesday Night Recap: Connor McDavid Is Too Good At Breakaways That He's Now Passing On Them
Connor McDavid is 20 years old. He’ll turn 21 in a couple of weeks but he’s still not even old enough to legally drink in the United States yet. This is his 3rd season in the NHL and the game is already way too easy for him. So easy, in fact, that when he has a shorthanded breakaway he’ll still opt to pass the puck considering he has the speed, the patience, and the skill to do so.
First off, shoutout to ref cam. Second off, you lose a foot race to the puck against Connor McDavid even if you have a 3-stride head start on the kid. If he catches you flatfooted with a head of steam already? You’re getting nothing but a good look at the back of his jersey. Just look at the separation here. There’s not a single Winnipeg Jet even in the frame here, which is also credit to Leon Draisaitl for hauling ass to keep up with 97.
I guess you can kind of see Jacob Trouba’s stick at the top of the circle there but that’s after McDavid already slowed down right in front of the net. Poor Trouba knew he was a dead man walking as soon as that puck jumped over his stick.
TFW Connor McDavid blew by you so quickly that you missed the whole thing and have no other choice but to see what just happened on the jumbotron.
Elsewhere in the hockey world last night, Canada beat Slovakia 6-0 in the World Juniors but the game should have been called right after this Jordan Kyrou goal to make it 2-0 in the second.
Let’s get a closer look at that one just to really assess the damage here.
Little inside-hesitate-outside move, brings it back through the defender’s legs, has 3 Slovakian sticks closing in on him and still snipes it in the back of the net. Kyrou has 58 points through 30 games so far this season in the OHL with the Sarnia Sting. He had 94 points in 66 games last year. So I’m sure at this point there has to be some sort of “Jordan Kyrou Dangled My Face Off” support group that Team Slovakia can talk to.
Sticking with the World Juniors, I’m sure that you’ve heard plenty about Rasmus Dahlin already so this next clip shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. Sweden didn’t have a game yesterday so they just had practice. And to close out that practice, they had a little shootout. Which is where Dahlin decided to shut it down wit a No No.
I know we’ve seen this move in the NHL a few times already this season. But this is a 17-year-old defenseman we’re watching here. Hands softer than the finest silk ever created and he was born in the year 2000. Think about that. 2000 seems like it was only like 6 years ago. Turns out it was 17 and now kids born in the year 2000 are about to destroy the World Juniors and get drafted to the NHL this summer. Sorry for making you feel like an old piece of shit this morning but it’s the only way to get my point across.
And then finally, this one isn’t exactly a dangle per se but the Vegas Golden Knights have been dangling the entire NHL so far this year. They came out of their holiday break last night with a 4-1 win over Anaheim. This win made them just the 2nd team in the league so far this year to hit 50 points.
The date is December 28th and the Vegas Golden Knights still have under 10 regulation losses on the season. They’ve hit 50 points and there’s only one team who has played fewer games so far this year than them and that’s the San Jose Sharks who have 42 points in 34 games played. It would be one thing if they were one of these teams who have already sneaked 39 games into their schedule already but they just keep winning. Everybody keeps saying “just wait and see. They’ll come back down to reality soon enough”. They said that after the first week of the season. They said that after the first month of the season. They said that after the second month and they’ll continue to say it for the rest of the year until the season is over and Vegas is the #1 seed in the West. What a world.
P.S. – World Junior Schedule today
- Finland vs Denmark (noon)
- Russia vs Switzerland (2pm)
- Sweden vs Czech Republic (4pm)
- USA vs Slovakia (8pm)
I’ll see you all at the live blog later tonight.