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64 Days Until The Season Begins

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Zach Laing
10 months ago
Throughout the summer and into the fall, we’ll be counting down the days until the Edmonton Oilers begin their 2023-24 season with a daily trip down memory lane.
With 64 days to go until the season starts, let’s look back at the 64 goals Connor McDavid scored this past season.

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PLAYER COUNTDOWN PRESENTED BY BETWAY


What a year it was for Connor McDavid.
And looking back, we should’ve known something special was coming after the first game of the season.
In the Oilers season opener, a home match against the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 12, McDavid led the way for the Oilers with a hat-trick and an assist helping lead the team to a 5-3 victory. For McDavid, it would be one of two hattricks scored over the course of the year, with his other happening on Oct. 27th with a similar four-point performance against the Chicago Blackhawks.
In short order McDavid would solidify himself atop the league’s scoring boards and didn’t look back. Through October, he scored nine goals adding as many assists for 18 points in thanks to his pair of hat tricks. A hot start would go a long way for McDavid as by the end of the calender year, he had 32 goals in 38 games. He wasn’t able to keep up the .84 goals per game pace, but he still mustered up 32 more tallies in the remaining 44 games of the season.
Crowned the Rocket Richard winner for the first time in his career, it was nothing short of an incredible regular season for McDavid. Along with his 64 goals came 89 assists and a 153 point total — a number that hadn’t been seen in decades.
His scoring ways translated into the post-season, too, racking up another eight goals in 12 games. Unfortunately for the Oilers, the run was cut short by the Vegas Golden Knights.
Throughout the season, McDavid scored goals on 36 opposing netminders. He scored the most of his goals against Seattle Kraken netminder Martin Jones and Arizona Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram, beating them each four times. Then, it was Joonas Korpisalo and Alex Stalock, each being beaten twice. He scored two goals against 14 goaltenders, and one goal against 18 separate goaltenders.
GoalieScored against
Percentage of goals
Martin Jones46.25%
Connor Ingram46.25%
Joonas Korpisalo34.69%
Alex Stalock34.69%
Thatcher Demko23.13%
Marc-André Fleury23.13%
Kaapo Kähkönen23.13%
Juuse Saros23.13%
John Gibson23.13%
Jeremy Swayman23.13%
James Reimer23.13%
Jake Oettinger23.13%
Jake Allen23.13%
Jacob Markström23.13%
Ilya Samsonov23.13%
Craig Anderson23.13%
Charlie Lindgren23.13%
Andrei Vasilevskiy23.13%
Tristan Jarry11.56%
Spencer Martin11.56%
Spencer Knight11.56%
Pyotr Kochetkov11.56%
Pheonix Copley11.56%
Petr Mrázek11.56%
Matt Murray11.56%
Mackenzie Blackwood11.56%
Lukáš Dostál11.56%
Kevin Lankinen11.56%
Jordan Binnington11.56%
Daniel Vladař11.56%
Collin Delia11.56%
Casey DeSmith11.56%
Carter Hart11.56%
Arvid Söderblom11.56%
Anton Forsberg11.56%
Adin Hill11.56%
This season, McDavid knew when to come up clutch. He scored 16 goals this year in the first period, just 25 percent of his markers. In the second period, he found the back of the net 20 times for 31.25 percent of his goals.
Where he did his damage most, however, was the third period where he scored 26 goals this year for 41 percent of his goals. An additional two were overtime winners.
Over the course of the year 19 different players assisted on McDavid’s goals for 104 apples. The most, in what should be a surprise to none, belonged to Leon Draisaitl, who helped set up McDavid on 27 of his goals this season with him accounting for 26 percent of the total assists.
Next up was Zach Hyman, who chipped in on 15 goals, followed by Tyson Barrie (12), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (10) and Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse (seven) filling out the rest of the top five.
PlayerAssists
Percentage of assists
Leon Draisaitl2725.96%
Zach Hyman1514.42%
Tyson Barrie1211.54%
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins109.62%
Evan Bouchard76.73%
Darnell Nurse76.73%
Brett Kulak65.77%
Cody Ceci43.85%
Evander Kane32.88%
Klim Kostin21.92%
Warren Foegele21.92%
Mattias Ekholm21.92%
Mattias Janmark10.96%
Kailer Yamamoto10.96%
Ryan McLeod10.96%
Dylan Holloway10.96%
Stuart Skinner10.96%
Jesse Puljujärvi10.96%
Nick Bjugstad10.96%
The biggest question we’ll all be asking is if McDavid can ever top his 64-goal total again. He became the 13th player in NHL history to hit the 64-goal mark, and his campaign was the 26th of the like in history.
It’s an elusive club that’s seen more than enough players fall just shy of joining it. For McDavid, who was the first to score that many goals since Alexander Ovechkin did so hitting the 65 mark in 2007-08, he could further cement his legacy by even being able to repeat a 60-goal campaign. If he could, he would be the eighth player in league history to hit the 60 goal mark twice or more.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.

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