New Fan with Questions

What's up! I've always been interested in hockey from afar and have a lot of knowledge of other sports but mainly a basic knowledge of hockey with help from some of my favorite sports youtubers (UTree, Pinholes). The game really captivates me with its history for each individual franchise and how they treat individual players like folk heroes and how to me it feels like a combo of the pace of basketball and the tactics of world football. I've been to one NHL game in my life and it happened to be Sharks v. Oilers and got to see Connor McDavid put up 3 pts in 2 periods and then just sit the rest of the game. It just looked like he was skating at x2 speed compared to everyone else. Is it crazy to say he's the best pure talent since Lemieux or maybe like an ? Again, new fan here, looking to see where to start expanding my knowledge because I'm about to have knee surgery and this is something I feel like I can pass the time with.