Is McDavid being defended well or just unlucky?

We’re three games into the Stanley Cup Final, and so far, Edmonton Oilers’ forward Connor McDavid has five assists, all of which came in the first two games. With the Florida Panthers up 2-1 and looking to take a commanding 3-1 lead in Game 4, can the Oilers’ captain break through and generate enough offense to even up the series?

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk are joined by Daily Faceoff’s Jason Gregor for the latest edition of The All 32 to discuss the Stanley Cup Final and if McDavid is snakebitten, or if the Panthers have cracked the code.

Frank Seravalli: Let’s unpack the Connor McDavid factor. At five-on-five in this series, the Oilers are outshooting the Panthers 44-27 with McDavid on the ice, yet they’re being outscored 4-2 by Florida. In your estimation, is that Florida defending really well? Or is that McDavid just being unlucky and due for a breakthrough?

Jason Gregor: It’s probably a bit of both, which I know is fence-sitting, but I think it’s true. If you look at last game, McDavid had their best chance, but look at their shots – don’t shoot low on Sergei Bobrovsky! Every scouting report and when you talk to people, every goalie has a bit of a weakness, and Bobrovsky’s is not on the ice. He’s got the wide butterfly stance, and he gets down better than any goalie there.

I think that’s a little bit of it, but also, I’d like to go through all the shots the Oilers took from the blue line. You might outshoot them, but if you only do it from distance with no screens in front? Bobrovsky is not giving up goals from distance with no one in front, at least not very often.

(When the game is) in Florida, they can get Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling trio, and they like that triangle against McDavid.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…