There are obviously a lot of great players in the NHL, but BetOnline customers are seeing that Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers is really separating himself from the rest.

As the catalyst for a powerful offense, McDavid has had an eleven-game playoff run thus far that has rivaled that of any player in the history of the NHL. And his dominance has been demonstrated by those who take these evaluations to another level through analytics.

The Oilers are up three games to one and have a chance to close out the Calgary Flames in a game that is slated to begin at 9:30 PM ET at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.

One writer has been motivated to say that McDavid "looks like he's in his own personal beer league," and maybe that's not far from the truth. In the regular season, he had 123 points on 44 goals and 79 assists. He's been bigger than that with the stakes higher.

In eleven playoff games thus far, he has scored 25 points, which comes to 2.27 points per game. That equals the run of Mario Lemieux in the 1992 playoffs for Pittsburgh, and is topped only by the legendary Oiler, Wayne Gretzky.

In these eleven games, McDavid has scored more than one point (a goal or an assist) in ten of them.

As a result of all this, the Oilers have overachieved a great deal. They were "only" seventh in the league in goals per game during the regular season. In this series, they have tallied 20 goals, and this has come against a Calgary squad that not only finished first in the Pacific Division (Edmonton was second), but also allowed the third fewest goals in the NHL.

In the Stanley Cup betting odds that have been posted on this game by the folks at BetOnline, the Flames are the favorites to stay alive at home:

Calgary Flames -150
Edmonton Oilers +136

Over 6.5 Goals -110
Under 6.5 Goals +100

And in the puck line......

Flames -1.5 Goals (+160)
Oilers +1.5 Goals (-180)

The Oilers are scoring 7.71 goals per 60 minute period with McDavid on the ice, and that is phenomenal. In terms of the metric known as "Game Score," McDavid has a career average of 1.38, but in the playoffs that has ballooned to 3.08, and that is without a doubt his best stretch since he came into the NHL under much pomp and circumstance in 2015.

Of course, when a player is so prolific and productive, he is going to being his linemates along with him, and to be fair, vice versa. McDavid's estimable running mate, Leon Draisaitl, has had almost as much production, with seven goals and 15 assists (22 points) in these eleven games.

Draisaitl is another monster; during the regular season, had 55 goals and as many assists, with 22 power play goals and nine game winners.

It should be noted that both McDavid and Draisaitl have only two goals apiece in this series against Calgary. But Evander Kane, the left wing on their line, has five goals on just 12 shots, in addition to seven against the Los Angeles Kings in the previous series. Zac Hyman, left wing on the second line, has also scored five times in the four games.

Edmonton is not necessarily known for defense; the Oilers were around the middle of the pack as far as goals allowed are concerned. However, this is one of those instances where tremendous offense has more or less sufficed as passable defense.

Edmonton has overwhelmed to the extent that goaltender Jacob Markstrom of Calgary, a Vezina Trophy finalist, has just an 85% save percentage.

This is obviously a lot different than the one taking place in the East between the Rangers and Hurricanes, where the checking has been close and the goals have been few and far between. In that series there were 14 goals in the first four games. The Oilers and Flames have combined for 36 goals. Calgary will play with desperation, for certain. But we don't see any reason this game couldn't go OVER the total of 6.5 goals (-110).

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