It's a tribute to Connor McDavid's second-half surge, having scored a preposterous 49 points in 29 games since the NHL All-Star break, that he's making some very smart people advance a very stupid idea, which is that a player whose team is 17 points out of the wild card should be a finalist for the Hart Trophy.
It's a stance that requires mental gymnastics of such a high degree of difficultly that they would give Gabby Douglas pause. It's a notion without precedent, and one that gnaws at established standards like a rat hopelessly trying to chew through a beer bottle.