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Connor McDavid carved through the Winnipeg Jets defense for another astonishing goal

Connor McDavid has done it again.

It being skating the puck through most of the other team and depositing it past a startled and dispirited goaltender at the end.

You’ll recall when he embarrassed the New York Rangers earlier this year in such a way. What he did against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night — tying a game that the Oilers would go on to win in a shootout (McDavid would score there, too) — might have somehow been even better.

To be fair to the Winnipeg Jets, McDavid pulls this off against Dylan Demelo and Logan Stanley, who rank fifth and sixth, respectively, in ice team this year among the team’s defensemen. Demelo is a below-replacement-level player according to Evolving Hockey, while Stanley is only slightly above. Adam Lowry is also captured on camera here but I’m not exactly sure he realizes he is supposed to be playing hockey.

But this is the impact McDavid has. He’s a singular talent, capable of doing this — and a dazzling array of other things that no other athlete in the sport can do — on a regular basis. Opposing coaches spend so much time and energy ensuring McDavid doesn’t get out there against bottom lines and pairings, because this is what happens.

By the way, McDavid is also right that he doesn’t get nearly enough calls. John Tortorella, an ESPN Analyst and former coach, told him to “shut up” about the lack of calls he draws, and McDavid shot back Thursday by saying “Guess I just gotta shut about this.”

But he doesn’t. He’s only drawn four, according to Natural Stat Trick. Two of the league leaders in this category (with 8) are 5-11 or below; the other is Matthew Tkachuck, who plays as if his salary is dependent upon making other players irate. It’s almost as if there’s a different set of rules for small players,

McDavid is 6-1 and skates like a genetic mashup of Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr who trained as both a speed and a figure skater before settling on hockey. He’s unreal. And other teams constantly commit penalties while trying to stop him. But he floats through it all and doesn’t get calls.

Whatever. A flawed Edmonton team is 12-4-0, good for first place in the Pacific, and ranks third in the league in points percentage.

Just for good measure, you can catch McDavid’s shootout goal here:

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