Are the Panthers powerless to stop the Oilers with McDavid in Video Game Mode?

Credit: Jun 18, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid (97) celebrates scoring during the second period against the Florida Panthers in game five of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

SUNRISE, Fla. — Maybe one day, when their hair is grey and their bellies are bigger and the Edmonton Oilers are sitting around with cocktails in-hand, they’ll reminisce and tell stories about the time Connor McDavid started to author the greatest comeback hockey has ever seen.

The story is still only half written for the Oilers. It’s a tale that not even Zach Hyman could have cooked up for one of his children’s books, and one that won’t make it to press without two more wins. But it doesn’t seem so far-fetched now.

Trailing 3-0 in this best-of-seven series, McDavid did something Tuesday no one in the 106-year history of the Stanley Cup Final had before him: Post a second consecutive four-point game.

Not Wayne. Not Mario. Not Mr. Hockey, nor the Roadrunner. Nope, not Kurri, Anderson nor Bossy and the dynastic Islanders.

“Connor doing Connor things,” Hyman said, shaking his head.

The Oilers dragged the Florida Panthers back to Alberta with a compelling 5-3 win in Game 5, and McDavid was the one pulling on the rope – a wiry World’s Strongest Man tugging the Panthers’ plane across the tarmac to criss-cross the continent one more time.

Game 6 is Friday night in Edmonton and it might as well be a long weekend, because not much work will be done in anticipation of the Oilers making it back alive with a chance to force Game 7.

“I’m really excited to see the energy that they bring on Friday night,” McDavid said.

McDavid posted two goals and two assists, including a highlight reel helper on Tuesday, to push his point total to 11 for the Stanley Cup Final. Now with 42 points on Edmonton’s run, McDavid is already in the playoff pantheon as the third player in league history with a 40-point postseason. History is in front of him. With five more points, he can tie Wayne Gretzky (47) for the most in a single playoff. With three more points, he can set a new record (14) for points in one Stanley Cup Final.

Most Points in a Stanley Cup Final

Player	Team	Year	Points
Wayne Gretzky	Oilers	1988	13
Danny Briere	Flyers	2010	12
Mario Lemieux	Penguins	1991	12
Jacques Lemaire	Canadiens	1973	12
Yvan Cournoyer	Canadiens	1973	12
Gordie Howe	Red Wings	1955	12
Connor McDavid	Oilers	2024	11

For perspective: in this one playoff run, McDavid has piled up more than 20 percent of the total points serial winner Sidney Crosby has accumulated in 180 games over 15 postseasons.

McDavid emphatically entered the chat for the Conn Smythe Trophy, and with eight points in the last two games, Captain Connor could be the front-runner for playoff MVP even if the Panthers finish it off. The last skater to win the Conn Smythe in a losing fashion was Philadelphia’s Reggie Leach in 1976.

The interesting part of McDavid’s case for the Conn Smythe is that he probably wouldn’t have been considered Edmonton’s MVP through three rounds, with Leon Draisaitl or Evan Bouchard duking it out for that title. But he’s found a way to elevate his game on the biggest stage so far above his peers, with eight points while facing elimination.

“He puts this team on his back,” Corey Perry said. “When we’re against the wall, he puts us on his back and plays. That’s just the type of player he is.”

A prominent defenseman once said that McDavid’s brain moves as fast as his feet and his hands move as fast as his brain, but even that might not do justice what he pulled off on Perry’s second period goal. McDavid blew past a flat-footed Eetu Luostarinen then went 1-on-2 and victimized Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola before sliding it backdoor to Perry.

What could McDavid possibly have seen to think that he would be successful going one against two? Oh, to be in the brain of the most highly-evolved player of all-time. In real-time, he assessed the smallest of gaps, and threaded the needle like a pilot weaving through thunderstorms.

“I’m in that position a lot going back for pucks, breakout, bringing it in the zone, so it’s something that I look at a lot how certain guys are playing things,” McDavid explained. “Mikkola has a really long reach and I just tried to work my way through there.”

Just a few minutes earlier, McDavid said he noticed that Sergei Bobrovsky was standing instead of protecting the post in a reverse VH setup, so he sensed a quick strike opportunity. Worst case scenario: Hyman would have been there to clean up the garbage.

“I don’t want to give away too much, there’s still hockey to be played, but coming in on that side of the goal I’ve gone short side lots,” McDavid said. “I would say most people know that I look there.”

It’s for moments like those, true greatness on display, that Perry picked the Oilers as a free agent after Chicago terminated his contract in November. He wouldn’t say he was prescient enough to know the Oilers would make the Stanley Cup Final, especially at that moment in time where they were still digging out of their early-season hole.

But Perry knew from experience that it’s typically only a matter of time before the generational stars get their fingerprints on Lord Stanley – and he wanted to be along for the ride.

“Absolutely. I picked here because I knew I’d get to play with great players and have an opportunity,” Perry said. “It’s pretty impressive what guys like that can do. You look back at my days in Anaheim, Scott Niedermayer. Then you go to Tampa, [Nikita] Kucherov and [Steven] Stamkos. Now here, with Connor and Leon [Draisaitl], it’s pretty special to be part of [that] and play with great players.

“They all play a different style of game. They’re all [different] personality-wise. But when backs are against the wall, they all know how to rise and be the leader that puts the team on his back.”

Those who have watched McDavid closest say that he’s played with more structure than ever before. It’s not that he’s more committed now, or has played better defense, or anything like that. They say he’s played with more structure because he’s placed more trust in his teammates to get the job done, that he doesn’t feel like he needs to do it all by himself. Part of that comes from the teachings of their mindfulness guru George Mumford, who has preached to McDavid and Draisaitl that “each player is enough.”

It would be easy to say McDavid has singlehandedly shifted all of the pressure squarely on the Florida Panthers.

“No. No. No,” Matthew Tkachuk said, disputing that notion. “It’s not an elimination game for us.”

The Panthers have shown signs of cracking. They were outworked on the special teams in Game 5, with Edmonton coming away with a plus-three advantage through a Connor Brown shorthanded goal and two power play strikes. There was the thousand-yard stare from coach Paul Maurice on the bench at times. And cameras captured GM Bill Zito winging a water bottle across his suite out of frustration when McDavid sealed Game 5 with an empty-netter.

We’re approaching a choking situation now, as Terry Murray famously once said. The Panthers must pack up a full charter flight of family and friends out to Alberta for another shot at glory. They are so tantalizingly close, but Zito has seen this movie before, just with a different opponent. Bobrovsky wilted one year ago in the Stanley Cup Final, tapping out with an .844 save percentage. At one point on Tuesday, the Oilers scored for the 11th time on 35 shots on Bobrovsky stretching back to the third period of Game 3, a putrid .686 save percentage in the span. The Cats left the door ajar, and the Oilers have kicked it in.

Belief is powerful. But McDavid is the substance behind the belief that makes it possible. The McDavid magic is undeniable. Leave it to him to brush aside the records, the stats, the Conn Smythe conversation. He has been laser focused on one prize, and it isn’t the Conn Smythe, and it definitely isn’t in a losing fashion.

“It’s been a fun ride, it’s going to go one more day,” McDavid said. “That’s all we’ve earned here is another day to play.”

_____

POST SPONSORED BY bet365

Are the Panthers powerless to stop the Oilers with McDavid in Video Game Mode?

Most Points in a Stanley Cup Final

Recently by Frank Seravalli