Oilers Need Connor McDavid to Wake Up, as Edmonton Finds Itself on the Brink of Defeat

Connor McDavid is a terrific hockey player.

He’s got hardware bursting through the walls at his stylish Edmonton home and is considered the best active NHL’er on the planet by nearly anyone who’s asked.

So, in many ways, his legacy is already secure. He’ll likely finish his career among the all-time leaders in assists and points, and he earned a Conn Smythe Trophy last June despite his team’s seven-game loss in the Stanley Cup Final.

But he won’t win it this year. In fact, he won’t be close. Not unless something drastic happens.

The Oilers' superstar did score his first goal of this year's Final against Florida on Saturday night, but his team is down 3-2 in the series after a 5-2 loss at Rogers Place.

Though he and Leon Draisaitl each entered Game 5 with 10 more points this spring than any other player, Edmonton’s two-headed monster had long become a one-man show starring No. 29 while 97 faded into the scenery.

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And unless the blue-and-orange faithful are ready to endure a 35th straight year without a celebratory parade through the “City of Champions,” that simply must change.

Immediately.

If it doesn’t, it’s a blow that’s going to leave a scar. A permanent one. And perhaps painful enough to prompt him to leave Edmonton via free agency come 2026.

While Draisaitl has ended the Oilers’ two victories in the series with overtime goals that gave him an NHL record with four in a single tournament, McDavid has beaten Sergei Bobrovsky once and has just four even-strength points in five games, one since Game 2.

It came in what was glorified garbage time on Saturday night, shortly after Florida’s Brad Marchand started at his own blue line and went through Jake Walman for his second goal of the game and sixth of a series in which he, not McDavid, has clearly been the best player.

That, to say the least, isn’t supposed to be happening.   

Marchand, 37, has been in the league since 2009 after arriving as a third-round pick and spent his first six seasons as more irritating than impactful.

He didn’t become a point-per-game player until 2016-17, and, despite playing 388 more regular-season games, has 102 fewer points than McDavid, who has five Art Ross trophies as the league’s scoring leader, three Hart trophies as its MVP, and netted the OT goal that won Canada the 4 Nations Face Off event in February.

Nevertheless, it’s McDavid and his teammates who’ll return to Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday night to face an elimination game for the first time in these playoffs. And when it comes to perception, it’s the most important game the 28-year-old—a Canadian junior phenom long before Edmonton picked him first in the 2015 Draft—has ever played.

Sure, statistics are nice.

But if the Oilers don’t at least manage to drag the Panthers back to Alberta for a deciding Game 7 on Friday, the subtle drumbeat that suggests McDavid’s highlight-producing sizzle far outpaces his steak will grow louder.

Maybe it’s fair. Maybe it’s not. But it is reality. Particularly after a stretch of five games in which he’s been rendered competitively invisible by three-time Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov and others.

Because it was supposed to be different this time.

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Wayne Gretzky won his first Cup in 1984, a year after losing in the Final against the same New York Islanders. Sidney Crosby took his first victory lap in 2009, 12 months after falling to the same Detroit Red Wings.   

Still, having won in Florida on Thursday to regain home-ice advantage for a best-of-three sprint, Edmonton managed exactly three shots on Bobrovsky in Saturday’s first period and only eight more in the second while itself digging a 2-0 hole for the third straight game.

McDavid was a non-factor for those 40 minutes, and, aside from the goal at 7:24 of the third, had just one other shot and earned a minus-1 rating across 21 inconsequential shifts.

For a guy eyeing a place alongside 99 and 87 on hockey’s mountaintop—and armed with lessons learned from last June’s disappointment—it’s barely worthy of a molehill.

It’s not a total loss, though.

Oilers fans will be quick to point out that the Panthers had a 3-1 lead in last year’s series heading into a Game 5 at home, but it was McDavid who provided two goals and four points in a 5-3 win that ultimately helped extend things to a do-or-die Game 7.

And they’ll be quick to forgive Saturday’s misstep if he does it again.

But, if not, don’t be surprised if all those trophies suddenly seem a lot less shiny.