In just about every entertainment genre, an audience eventually tires of star performers and demands fresh faces. Did you know Brendan Fraser was once a Hollywood star? He was! He went from The Mummy series to Furry Vengeance and was never heard from again.
It happens all the time. Bands stop selling records. Comedians stop selling out theaters. Authors stop selling books. Sculptors stop selling sculptures (or so I assume, as if I know anything about sculptors). Bachelors and Bachelorettes … try to become The Apprentice? Is that a step down? Does that happen? There are probably more examples but you get the point—the public grows weary of seeing the same thing over and over and craves something new.
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Hockey fans will get to play that out during the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid make their postseason debuts.
Read More: Down Goes Brown Playoff Preview: Eastern Conference First Round
You always hear about young talent bumping old people from their jobs in other industries, and hockey should be no different. Since 2010, we’ve been treated to a lot of the same postseason storylines:
• Can the Blackhawks repeat? Would Jonathan Toews score 100 points a year if he weren’t so dedicated to playing a two-way game? How will Stan Bowman navigate the salary cap next year?
• Then there’s Sidney Crosby and whether Sidney Crosby will Sidney Crosby and if Sidney Crosby isn’t doing enough Sidney Crosby, can the Sidney Crosby overcome the Sidney Crosby in the Sidney Crosby? Only Sidney Crosby has Sidney Crosby something something Evgeni Malkin.
• Then there’s Alex Ovechkin and whether Alex Ovechkin will Alex Ovechkin and … you get it. They talk about Crosby and Ovechkin a lot.
Matthews and McDavid were teammates on the North America squad during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Photo by Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports
The Los Angeles Kings were a regular part of the repetitive narratives over that time, too, but now that they are officially bad, it’s opened the door for McDavid and the Oilers in the West. Matthews and the Maple Leafs have kicked the door down in the East, and the time has never been better for new, elite postseason blood.
Want to feel old? Ovechkin (2004), Malkin (2004), Crosby (2005), Toews (2006), and Kane (2007) were all drafted at least ten years ago. If the rules of Hollywood applied to this foursome, they’d all be moving from leading-man roles in studio films to leading-man roles in AMC series. We enjoyed your hits but now at the very least you should be playing dads in movies where your daughter is dating Zac Efron and you don’t approve.
McDavid and Matthews in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting. You know you’re seeing something remarkable and this is only the beginning.
Consider what it means for both to be in the postseason at this stage of their careers.
Matthews (with the help of other rookie teammates, of course) reached the playoffs after being taken with the first pick in last year’s draft. The last time a player taken first overall helped his team reach the playoffs in the same season was Joe Thornton with the Boston Bruins in 1997-98. Thornton was only able to muster three goals and seven points in 55 games in his 18-year-old season, and had zero points in six playoff games, laying the foundation for a decade-plus of Hot Joe Thornton Takes.
Matthews is going to the playoffs in his first season after the draft after scoring 40 goals and 69 points, as nice a rookie season few have had since the lockout. Only two rookies since 1993-94 have scored 40 goals: Matthews and Ovechkin, who scored his 52 goals in 2005-06, one year after his draft year in a league that didn’t understand how to defend with all the renewed vigor for calling interference penalties (that has since dissipated).
There’s a strong chance that Matthews’ playoff debut lasts only four or five games, as old man Ovechkin and the Capitals are heavy favorites. Think of this matchup as Ryan Gosling and George Clooney in 2011’s The Ides Of March, when you knew Gosling was on his way to Oscar nominations and The Nice Guys. This series should similarly give you a taste of what’s to come for Toronto.
Then there’s McDavid, who is a year older and put up 100 points in what will almost definitely be an MVP season. McDavid vs. Matthews is destined to be the next generation’s Crosby vs. Ovechkin, and all of the accolades Matthews received as a rookie probably would have been bestowed upon McDavid if not for a broken collarbone. Last year, he would have topped 80 points if he played a full season. He wasn’t rewarded with a Calder Trophy last year, but he was rewarded with a winnable first-round matchup this year.
Matthews might very well match Thornton’s pointless postseason of 1998. Meanwhile, McDavid is facing a slumping, beat-up Sharks team that might not have enough speed to slow him. We may look back on Matthews’ foot-in-the-door moment the same way we look back on Jonah Hill trying to buy boots in The 40-Year-Old Virgin—brief and only memorable as his career blossoms.
Matthews scored 40 goals and 69 points in his stellar rookie season. Photo by John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
But McDavid has the potential to be Jason Schwartzman in Rushmore and Edward Norton and Primal Fear all rolled into one. You might see this postseason and instantly realize he will be doing this for a very long time at a very high level (sans that bad Incredible Hulk movie from Norton).
There’s no better inaugural playoff opponent for McDavid than the veteran-laden San Jose Sharks, a team on its last legs as a Stanley Cup contender. If there’s a fourth narrative that’s been beaten into the ground over the past decade, it’s the “Can Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau win a Stanley Cup?” narrative. If we’re sticking with the movie comparisons, the 2016-17 Sharks are the embodiment of that movie that’s coming out now where all the really great, but very old, actors try to rob a bank. It’s a movie you don’t want to see because it will make you sad for everyone involved.
And with Beauty & The Beast in its fourth week beating that old people movie in its first week at the box office, does that mean McDavid is Emma Watson, who has another big movie coming out in a couple weeks? If you’re like me, you’re as lost in this metaphor as myself and the person editing it, and I apologize to all of you.
The bottom line is, we are lucky to be getting an influx of game-changing talent in the playoffs ahead of schedule. It’s a chance to expose fans to new faces, which is why it’s great that the Oilers and the Leafs are scheduled to appear on national television here in the United States. You’ll have to stay up late for Oilers-Sharks, but it will be worth it.
McDavid and Matthews (and perhaps Jack Eichel with the Buffalo Sabres next season) signal the start of a new era. They are prestige Netflix programming up against the 11th season of The Big Bang Theory. Let’s encourage the former. The time for new, wonderful entertainment is upon us.
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