Last season, Mark Scheifele put the NHL on notice as he recorded 82 points, good for 7th place in the league.
The 24-year-old is striving for bigger and better things this season, though, and although his goals will be tough to accomplish, he's on his way to reaching them with five points in three games so far.
Scheifele, along with almost every NHL player and fan, recognizes that Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby are the two best players in the world right now and he's trying to enter that conversation.
What makes the two so great, though? There's more than one answer to that question, and with the help of The Players' Tribune, Scheifele explained why both players are so unreal as he listed the 5 toughest players he's ever faced:
Why He’s Unreal:
The fastest guy in the league. The best hands in the league. Amazing hockey sense. And he’s 20 years old. It’s pretty scary.
I remember the first time I saw Connor skate in person, I was like, O.K., this guy was just born different. He’s genetically superior. He was created in a hockey lab. I mean, he’s taking the same amount of strides as everybody else … he’s wearing the same skates as everybody else … and somehow he’s going twice as fast? There’s not a single NHL team that has figured out how to handle his speed on the rush.
While McDavid's game is largely based on speed and skill, Scheifele explained how Crosby's game differs, but is equally as incredible.
Why He's Unreal:
Every time he’s rushing the puck and a defenseman jumps into the rush behind him, I say to myself, “Is he gonna see him? There’s no way he’s gonna see him.”
And then of course he sees him, every single time. This is something that goes above and beyond stats. 99.9% of the time, Sid makes the right decision with the puck. As a player, I can’t tell you how hard it is to have that kind of vision. You see what he does on TV, and he makes it look so simple. But when you’re at ice level, things are really chaotic. Everything’s moving so fast around you. Maybe there’re ruts in the ice. Maybe there’s a defenseman stepping up on you, or you’re getting hacked from behind. You’re looking down at the puck in your periphery. You’re trying to process where your teammates are. And you’re trying to do all this at full-speed. To be able to make the right decision every time like Sid does, your brain has to be a supercomputer.
But even if you’re as smart as Sid, and as physically gifted, there are a million other variables going on. Maybe you’re on a back-to-back on the road. Maybe your coach is on you, or you got into an argument with your girlfriend, and you’re up in your own head. Can you do it every single night, for 82 games, plus the playoffs, for more than 10 years, without ever regressing?
This is what Sidney Crosby has done, and it really is mind-blowing.
Scheifele revealed he watches Crosby more than any other player and that really tells you all you need to know about Sid. Young players everywhere should watch him play because they'd probably learn a few things.
The other three players on Scheifele's list were Erik Karlsson, Carey Price and Roman Josi, and the 24-year-old told a great story about facing Price during his second year in the NHL:
I will gladly embarrass myself for the sake of this article, as long as you guys are retweeting this. I remember during my second year in the league, we were playing up in Montreal. Obviously, you know going in against Price that you’re gonna need some high-quality chances. So at some point during the game, I got the puck in the high slot, and I got a step on the defenseman and pulled around him. I got a clear lane. Perfect scoring opportunity. Just me and Price. And I got everything on the shot. Sometimes, you just know right as it’s coming off your stick. And as this one is coming off my stick, I’m thinking, That’s bardown. I’m almost mentally getting ready to celebrate.
Then I look up, and all I see is red. Carey’s standing straight up, in perfect position, and the puck hits him square in the chest.
Not only does it hit him square in the chest, but it hits him and then drops right into his glove. And then he calmly hands it to the ref. He never went down into the butterfly. Literally, 99 out of 100 goalies would’ve gone down in that situation. But Carey is so smart that he reads exactly what you’re going to do in a fraction of a second. He’s so good that he’ll make you look like an idiot.
Be sure to check out Scheifele's full analysis for each player in his Players' Tribune piece here!
(H/T: The Players' Tribune)
