Connor McDavid may be rather mild-mannered to the media, but don't think for a second this man isn't the ultimate competitor. For many a year, McDavid and a core of impressive players have tried to will the Edmonton Oilers back to the glory days of Wayne Gretzky. Talk about a tall order.
Nevertheless, McDavid as an individual has more than delivered on the hype and is, without question to me, the best player of his generation. One of the all-time greats already at age 27. With nine seasons under his belt, it's not too early to say that.
So it's no surprise that when Edmonton advanced to the Stanley Cup Final this past postseason to face the Florida Panthers, McDavid was eager to deliver the Oilers' first championship banner since 1990. More will be revealed via Amazon's FACEOFF: Inside the NHL docuseries when it premieres tomorrow, but for now, what a hell of a tease this clip is.
This was after Edmonton's 4-1 Game 2 loss, based on how McDavid screams at his teammates about getting one win back home:
"That's not f*****g good enough. It's the f*****g Finals. Dig the f**k in! Right now! Whatever the f**k you have! That is not f*****g good enough. Let's go get one f*****g win at home. One win. And we'll see what f*****g happens."
https://twitter.com/BR_OpenIce/status/1841864795017859381
DAMN, Connor! Go off, king!
In one of the biggest anticlimactic teases in sports history, the Oilers fell into a 0-3 series hole against the Panthers, and roared back to force a Game 7 — only to lose in Florida 2-1 in the finale. Although he took a lot of heat for that loss, it was awesome to witness McDavid and that Edmonton team stage such a collective stand. They were on the brink of being swept. That would've been a tougher hit to McDavid's legacy, especially since the Oilers got walloped 4-0 by the Avalanche in the Conference Finals two years prior. Having those couple results on your playoff resume would've made the harsh criticism of LeBron James' standing in basketball look tame by comparison.
You love to see this type of fire out of McDavid. Good on him for not giving a crap about cameras being on him and saying what needed to be said. It sure didn't feel like a "playing to the cameras for dramatic effect" moment either. That was as raw of an emotional outburst as you could ask for. Too good to be scripted.
Last month, Edmonton eliminated any doubts about its plans to go all-in for the Cup by signing McDavid's chief running mate, Leon Draisaitl, to an eight-year contract extension. So glad the Oilers didn't go cheap to break up hockey's most dynamic duo. Now it's a matter of whether the devastating Stanley Cup loss of last season makes for a 2024-25 hangover.
Whatever happens, the puck is already dropping on the new season next week.
https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1798695680007176601
