Stanley Cup Final: Oilers' Connor McDavid finally reaches last round; will he be the ultimate star?
Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid (97) takes part in practice, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta. Credit: AP/JASON FRANSON
The Rangers were unable to solve the defensive riddle presented by the Florida Panthers, and it cost them the Eastern Conference final.
Now the Panthers defense has one more challenge to face, and it will be a step up from their last one.
No disrespect to the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and friends, but they are not quite at the level of the Oilers’ Connor McDavid.
No one is.
“Make no doubt about it, he is the most talented player that I’ve ever seen play the game, that I’ve ever played against,” ESPN analyst P.K. Subban said Thursday on a conference call promoting the Stanley Cup Final, which opens on Saturday night on ABC and ESPN+.
Said fellow analyst Ray Ferraro, “When you watch him it becomes so obvious how great a player he is, what he does that other people can’t do. You’re not talking about minor sports here. You’re talking about the best players in the world.”
Having the Rangers and Stars win the conference finals would have been better for American television ratings than the Panthers and Oilers.
But hockey purists are intrigued by how McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the high-powered Oilers will do against Florida.
It also will be the first chance for McDavid, who is 27 and in his ninth season, to get the ultimate showcase he deserves.
He is widely hailed as the best player in the world and is gaining on Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin on the list of best players of the 21st Century.
Winning a Cup would go a long way toward rounding out his resume. But the Oilers are the betting underdog to get that job done.
Analyst Mark Messier, whom ESPN re-signed on Thursday, picked the Rangers and Oilers — two teams with which he won Cups — to meet in the Final. Then he saw what the Panthers did to the Rangers.
“Unfortunately, the Rangers got up against a team in Florida that was just unrelenting in their pressure that they put on the Rangers, and they never let the Rangers get to their game,” Messier said. “They got them down early, and they held them down and never let them off the mat.”
Can they do it again?
“That’s going to be the story of it,” Subban said, “is Florida and how they play, how they contain Edmonton five-on-five. But I really believe they’re going to do that . . . As great as Connor McDavid is, it’s going to take magic for him to beat this team five-on-five.
“I thought the way they (penalty) killed against the Rangers demoralized them, demoralized them offensively, and I think they can do the same to the Edmonton Oilers.”
All that said, McDavid is the clear marquee attraction entering the Final.
“Any time you have your best player or your best players on a world-class stage like the Stanley Cup Final, it’s the epitome of what the league wants,” Subban said. “For ESPN to have the Final this year and to have Connor McDavid in it is a massive deal for the NHL.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
