Is it finally McDavid's (and Canada's) time to win the Stanley Cup?
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After almost a week of buildup, a highly anticipated Stanley Cup sequel between the Oilers and Panthers finally gets started tonight at 8 p.m. ET in Edmonton.
Last year, these teams delivered the most riveting NHL championship series since the Bruins defeated the Canucks in Game 7 in 2011 — a result that set off a literal riot in Vancouver. Fuelled by a Connor McDavid scoring binge, the Oilers became the first team in 79 years to come back from a 3-0 deficit to force a Game 7 in the Cup final, only to lose the decider in Florida by one goal.
McDavid was named playoff MVP anyway (the first time in 21 years that the award went to someone on the losing team) after he broke Wayne Gretzky's record for most assists in a post-season and finished with the fifth-highest point total ever: 42 in 25 games. But the Oiler captain was so distraught that he refused to return to the ice to accept the Conn Smythe Trophy from commissioner Gary Bettman before the Panthers hoisted the Cup for the first time in franchise history.
Coming off that emotionally and physically exhausting series, both Edmonton and Florida limped into this year's playoffs as the third-place team in their respective divisions. But, as great teams seem to do, they raised their game when the stakes increased.
WATCH | Oilers could boast depth advantage in Stanley Cup final with Panthers:
The Panthers mauled a very good Tampa Bay team in five games in the opening round, then overcame some shaky moments to blow out Toronto 6-1 in Game 7 of their series before dispatching Carolina with a five-game gentlemen's sweep to reach their third consecutive Stanley Cup final. The Oilers took a bit longer to get going, dropping their first two playoff games to Los Angeles before snapping out of it to defeat the Kings in six and then take out both Vegas and Dallas in a tidy five to become the first Canadian team to reach consecutive Cup finals since Gretzky's Oilers in 1987 and '88.
So, while it took some time to prove it, Edmonton and Florida are once again the two best teams in the league and it should be another exciting final. Here's a look at some key talking points for this story-rich rematch:
The stars are aligning for McDavid.
It's rare for the same two teams to meet in the Cup final in back-to-back years. In fact, this is just the second time it's happened since Gretzky's Oilers ended the New York Islanders' run of four consecutive championships by winning their rematch in 1984. In 2009, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins avenged their loss to Detroit by beating the Red Wings in seven. In both cases, the greatest player of his generation (and, in Gretzky's case, of all time) captured his first Stanley Cup by defeating the team that beat him in the final the year before.
So, is it McDavid's turn to follow them? He's been the undisputed best player on the planet for years now, winning three regular-season MVPs and five scoring titles along with last year's Conn Smythe over his 10 seasons in the NHL. But he's long overdue for a Stanley Cup. Crosby won it in his fourth season, Gretzky in his fifth.
Both of those guys had Hall-of-Fame-calibre sidekicks (Evgeni Malkin for Crosby; Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Jari Kurri for Gretzky) and McDavid has his own in Leon Draisaitl. The 2019-20 MVP and scoring champ led the league in goals this season with 52 and is just one point behind McDavid for the playoff lead with 25 in 16 games.
The historical parallels are too clear to ignore. It just feels like McDavid's time.
But the Panthers are a borderline dynasty.
Hockey fans who witnessed the Montreal Canadiens reel off four straight Stanley Cups in the late 1970s, immediately followed by four in a row by the Islanders and then four in five years by Gretzky's Oilers may bristle at the use of the D word. But we're in the salary-cap era now, where three consecutive trips to the final (and possibly back-to-back championships) is about as good as it gets.
Florida GM Bill Zito has built an ideal team for modern playoff hockey — highly skilled, hard to score on and both mentally and physically tough. Star forwards Sam Bennett (leading the playoffs with 10 goals) and Matthew Tkachuk definitely don't mind mixing it up, while Aleksander Barkov just won his second straight Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL and now leads the team with 17 points in 17 post-season games. Plus, Zito added an extra dollop of grit to his front end by acquiring prickly veteran star Brad Marchand at the trade deadline. Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones lead a solid defence corps, and two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky gives the Panthers a clear edge in goaltending over the Oilers' capable but inconsistent Stuart Skinner.
The fact that every other team is now trying to model itself after Florida is pretty funny to anyone who remembers the last three decades of Panthers hockey. After making the Stanley Cup final in just their third year of existence in 1996, they went 25 years without winning a playoff series while playing in front of embarrassingly sparse crowds in their dated arena an hour north of Miami. The streak ended in 2022, when they stunningly won the Presidents' Trophy for the NHL's best regular-season record but got swept by in-state rival Tampa Bay in the second round. Florida returned to the Cup final the following year and fell in five to Vegas before defeating the Oilers last year to complete their improbable journey to the top.
Now, Florida has become just the ninth team in NHL history to reach three consecutive finals. Before Tampa Bay's run from 2020-22, which included back-to-back Stanley Cup victories, it hadn't been done since Gretzky's Oilers in 1985.
Will 'The Drought' finally end?
To address a common criticism of this storyline: yes, we understand that not all NHL fans in this country automatically throw their support behind the last remaining Canadian team after theirs is eliminated. And, yes, many fans of the Calgary Flames (or Winnipeg Jets or Vancouver Canucks or whomever) would hate to see Edmonton win another title. We get it.
But the fact that no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup in 32 years definitely matters. This is the country that plays hockey better than anyone and cares about it the most, so it's a national sore spot that we've gone this long without one of our fanbases celebrating an NHL championship. I, for one, am tired of hearing about it. And it would be great to see someone — anyone — parade the Cup down our streets for a change. Especially at this particular moment in Canada-U.S. relations.
So, will that be the Oilers sometime in the next couple weeks? Honestly, it's a coin flip.
The respected statistical models give a slight edge to Florida, especially after Edmonton lost key winger Zach Hyman to a broken wrist in the Western final, though the surprising return of defenceman Mattias Ekholm from a long-term injury somewhat offsets that. But the more-subjective betting markets slightly favour the Oilers, and some analysts seem to agree based mostly on sort of a hockey version of the Great Man Theory.
The thinking here is that, sometimes, the greatest of the greats simply won't be denied. We've seen it with Gretzky and with Michael Jordan in the NBA. It's easy to forget now, but even the GOATS had their doubters before they won their first championship. Their victories were not preordained. But they bent history in their favour, and now McDavid has the power to do the same.
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