SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Connor McDavid kept a straight face while making a curious revelation to a group of reporters after surpassing 400 career goals.
“Goal scoring is something that has not come easy to me,” the Edmonton Oilers star said Tuesday night after scoring twice in a 5-2 win over Utah, giving him 401.
“It’s something that I work at, something that I focus on,” McDavid added. “I set a goal at the beginning of the year: trying to shoot more pucks.”
Jack Roslovic, who also had two goals in the win, couldn’t believe McDavid’s claim that he’s not a natural at scoring. When asked if he agreed, Roslovic looked incredulous and scoffed: “No comment.”
Roslovic says his team, which moved into second place in the Pacific Division, follows the longest tenured captain in Oilers history even if he doesn’t say a lot.
“It’s just the hustle. Everyone watches him, knows what he’s doing, and it’s inspiring, humbling, motivating,” the center said.
McDavid became the fifth player in Oilers history to reach 400 goals when he took a feed from Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard and beat Karel Vejmelka with 7:53 left in the second period.
The go-ahead goal was his 39th of the season and put Edmonton in front 3-2. He scored his 401st goal and 40th of the season on an empty-netter with 7.5 seconds remaining.
McDavid is a three-time winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s MVP — one of only two unanimous winners, along with Wayne Gretzky — and is known for his extraordinary quickness, recently hitting a top on-ice speed of 24.61 mph in a game.
“Of course, there’s his speed, but I don’t think he gets enough credit for his shot,” Oilers coach Kris Knobaluch said. “He is dangerous when he gets off the circles and he’s got a great release and is so difficult to check. He’s so determined to get to the net.”
McDavid considers himself more of a playmaker. He now has 1,200 points in his career — the third-fastest player to reach the mark behind Gretzky and Mario Lemieux — and needs just one assist to reach 800.
“It’s a big number, obviously, and I feel like I got a lot of great years ahead of me still, which is exciting,” said McDavid, the No. 1 draft pick in 2015. “These milestones are just a nice time to reflect and I’m just very grateful to have played with so many great players.”
Some of them say it’s difficult at times to not sit back and watch the show McDavid puts on.
“He’s amazing,” Roslovic said. “Just really cool for him, obviously, to do that, and then for us to be able to be a part of it and to be able to watch is special.”
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This story has been corrected to reflect that McDavid’s first goal was his 39th of the season and his second goal of the game was his 40th of the season.
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