EDMONTON – You're Miro Heiskanen. You are one of the best defenders in the world. And not that modern type of “defensman” who is basically a fourth forward on the ice, accumulating the majority of his Norris Trophy votes in the offensive zone. You are a defense man. You play defending, man. Probably better than all but a handful of guys alive today. You know what you're doing out there.
So when you see Connor McDavid receive a pass from Leon Draisaitl up top, you prepare accordingly. You know his speed. You know his shot. You know his creativity. And when he passes Sam Steel (a very good penalty killer, of course) on the outside just running through a helpless stick check, you start to turn to the outside. McDavid comes out wide to attack the net from the side. Maybe I'll try to get it into the corner, maybe I'll try to spin around the cage and do a flip, maybe I'll try one of those reverse VH-breaking sharp-angled roof jobs that are all the rage. these days. But he's going wide.
There is no other path for him, right?
Suddenly, McDavid stops in an instant and he's done. These fried. You have to turn your neck 90 degrees to the left just to see the guy, and all you see is a blue and orange blur that disappears from your peripheral vision. You sort of stick your butt out in a futile attempt to unbalance him, but he's already pulled the disc back and dragged it all over your body, making his way like a seasoned spelunker through an incredibly narrow path between you and Steel. , which is still desperately trying to catch up.
By the time you turn your head and offer a desperate smack of one hand to the spot where you're thinking, guess what? hope? – McDavid could be, the puck is already in the net, McDavid somehow placed the puck with pinpoint accuracy over the left shoulder of Jake Oettinger (no slouch in goal) with a shovel maneuver. Not a shot in the wrist. It's not a clean backhand in open space. It is not a folding job. A shovel. The guy looked like he was clearing a stall at Belmont, and yet he made a perfect, unstoppable, incredible shot.
When you come full circle, all you can do is slump your shoulders and then half-shrug them, while you, Steel, Esa Lindell, and Wyatt Johnston loiter around the crease exchanging blank glances without saying a word, as if to say, “What?” What the hell just happened?”
Just disgusting, to be honest
pic.twitter.com/KRcj2GF3El
– Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) June 3, 2024
“I tried to get to the center of the court, and that was the best way I thought possible,” McDavid said with a literal shrug.
Yes. Ho-hum.
McDavid added a delicate little saucer pass to score Zach Hyman's power-play goal later in the first period. That was enough for a 2-1 victory in Game 6 that sent the Dallas Stars home. That's how you win a game where you're outshot 35-10, a record low in shots and a record high in shot differential for the deciding factor of a series. This is how you defeat back-to-back division champions to reach the Stanley Cup Final. This is how you are one step closer to living up to the impossible expectations that accompanied you to the league almost a decade ago. Well, that and a penalty that somehow ended 28 straight power plays, and a goalie like Stuart Skinner who is playing well above expectations, and a first-year coach like Kris Knoblauch who has pushed all the right buttons and that he has another of the five. The best players in the world in Draisaitl on the same power play unit as you and, well, that's fine. The Edmonton Oilers have a lot going for them.
But each team has a lot to offer this time of year. But they don't have McDavid. Nobody does it. Nobody has ever done it. And finally, after nine seasons of this featured human GIF working in the relative obscurity of northern Alberta (pretty much as far away from American prime-time television as you can get, thanks to a general lack of vision on the part of TV headlines American rights), McDavid can ply his trade, fly and escape in front of the largest possible audience.
He earned it and the hockey world deserves it. We all deserve to see our best on the biggest stage.
The best of all time? Well, hockey protocol dictates that a Stanley Cup is a requirement to be included in that conversation, so we might have to wait a couple of weeks. Now, you know what, maybe we won't. Look, there's always a recency bias at play, but look at what an NHL goalie looked like in the early 1980s, all 5-foot-something, playing that awkward standing style with skinny little pads. Imagine what this McDavid would do against those goalies, against all the pylons that used to populate the league. Sure, he'd be chased every night by the fourth-line thugs who used to roam the hockey world like industrious dinosaurs, but could they even make it to a neutral zone like that?
It seems wildly hyperbolic to say that no one else in the history of the game could have scored that goal that way, but then again, isn't it? Why do we always feel compelled to police ourselves, to rate ourselves, to lie down, to hesitate, to sit still? This is a talent we have never seen, doing things we never thought possible. It's hockey heresy to say McDavid is the greatest hockey player who ever lived, because it's hockey heresy to say he's even the greatest Edmonton Oiler who ever lived. Wayne Gretzky was the most dominant athlete in the history of North American team sports. Final point. One of one. The best race in history.
But could I do that?
Can we at least acknowledge that McDavid is the most talented, most gifted, most amazing hockey player who ever lived? That's not hyperbolic. That's obvious. That's right in front of us. Say it loud. Recognize it. Hug him. Celebrate it. What a time to be a hockey fan. What a time to be alive.
“That was nice, I've seen it before, but nice,” Draisaitl deadpanned, as hundreds of delirious fans chanted “We want the Cup!” shaking the windows overlooking the Oilers press conference room on Rogers Place from 104 Avenue. “There is one player in the world who can make things like that happen.”
A player. A player in this game. In this league. In this world. Maybe in the history of this sport.
The grandest setting awaits you and will be a must see. With McDavid, it always is.
(Photo: Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)
The post The unstoppable and unmissable Connor McDavid reaches the Stanley Cup final. do not blink appeared first on Creative Format.