The NHL's Hart Trophy race in 2017-18 is far more convoluted than any of the landslidesfrom the last five years. With a month to goin the regular season, no fewer than a half-dozen players can lay claim to "most valuable," aterm that's open to interpretation, from Nikita Kucherovof the league-leading Lightning to Nathan MacKinnon, whose superhuman season has the Avalanche on the fringes of their first playoff berth since 2008. They might be the two front-runners. Then there's Taylor Hall. Hall's streak of consecutive games with a point , the first time the Devils star failed to reach the scoresheet in 2018.He had already pulled even with Patrick Kane (2015-16) for the longest in the last 22 years,and was he approaching even greater historical significance in the company of all-timers. MORE: Scoring streaks, Ryan Anderson Jersey even ones that last more than a quarter of a season, can besuperficial, and inthe context of an MVP race pointsare a fickle stat. They don't always paint a complete picture, andthe order in which they're scoredmatters not. Kane and Mario Lemieux are the only players on that list to win the Hart the same year. If nothing else, though, Hall'slast 27gamesraised the profile of hisunderratedcandidacy. It served as a reminder of his critical role for theDevils and their fragile playoff hopes. "I don't know if it's nece sarily rallying around the streak," Devils coach John Hynes responded when asked about the influence of Hall's play on the rest of the team. "You have a really good player that's driven to make an impact. What it does is it drags people with him. I think it's inspirational when you have a guy who playsthat hard every night. He's all in, whether it's practice, games, meetings, and that's very important." All the while, the "best" vs. "most valuable" debate rages on. STEELE: Connor McDavidis a poster child for the former. There's little argument McDavidis the best player in hockey, but with his Oilers toiling some 20 points out of a playoff spot, it's easy enough to make a case against a repeat Hart bid. Kucherovleads the league in scoring, but how much of it is a byproduct of playing on a loaded Lightning team?EvgeniMalkin, who outside of Hall has been maybe the hottest player since the calendar flipped, falls into the same predicament as Kucherov, surrounded by a ton of talent with the Penguins. MacKinnonhas the most points per game (1.34). Last season the Avalanche bottomed out with the worst season the NHL has seen in two decades. If they make the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2018, MacKinnon'scase seems ironclad, but the postseason is a big if with five teams vying for the final two spots in the West, all within five points of one another. And then there's the clusterof quieter candidates like Washington's Alex Ovechkin, Philadelphia'sClaude Giroux and Calgary's Johnny Gaudreau,each havingwilled their teams into contentionto varying degrees. Hall enters the weekend just inside the NHL's top 10 in scoring, trailing almost everyone else in the Hart conversation. But his 74 points are 31 more than the Devils' second-leading scorer, Nico Hischier, and a career-high 30 goalsaccountfor14.9percent of the team's output this season. Of those 201 Devils goals, Hall has either scored or set up 36.8 percent. It's po sible New Jersey will finish without another 20-goal scorer(Kyle Palmieri got his 18th Thursday). MORE: Hall also carries a 7.7 offensive point share, fifth in the league. He trails Malkin, Kucherov, MacKinnon and Ovechkin in that category, but you can argue all four benefit from a stronger supporting cast on offense. No one has done more with le s than Hall. New Jersey Devils scoring leaders this season: Nico Hischier - 41 Taylor Hall's last 26 games - 38 Taylor Hall's first 36 games - 36 Jesper Bratt - 34 Kyle Palmieri - 33 Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) "You need some of your best players, your marquee players, to be the culture-drivers in how they play, how they work and the me sages they promote," Hynes said of Hall. "He's done that, and I think our team feels as though when you have a guy going like that, everyone else has to get a higher level also, so that's part of being a very good player. "You make other players better and that's what he's done." New Jersey is only three points clear of the surging Panthers in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, and just one ahead of the Blue Jackets for the first wild-card spot. The remaining14games will decide whether Hall has a realistic shot at winning the Hart. If voting trends are any indication, he might not even qualify as a finalist for the award, the criteria for which is still far from consensus.If it comes down to points, there's probably no hope. Hall was planted besidethe net on the Devils' second goal Thursday whenHischiercleaned up the scramble in front. Hall wasn't credited with a point, . Had it, MVP chatter would have grown louder as the streak livedon for a 27th game.Instead, as is often the case in hockey, fate is left to one fluky bounce. The le son: A points streak elevatedHall's case for the Hart Trophy, but the final tallyshouldn't come to define it. Solomon Hill Jersey