Hart trophy would be cherry to incredible season for McDavid
ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI
POSTMEDIA NETWORK
Winning a Hart Trophy would be an amazing cherry on the sundae that was Connor McDavid’s sophomore season in the NHL, but as far as the Edmonton Oilers captain is concerned, the sundae is all that matters.
Being nominated for the league’s top honour, along with Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is great, and winning it at the NHL awards in Las Vegas Wednesday would be greater, but nothing that happens this summer will top what happened last spring.
“I’m definitely excited to go there, there are some very prestigious awards that I’m up for and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what happens,” said McDavid, who is also up for the Ted Lindsay Award (outstanding player as voted by the NHLPA.)
“But, whatever happens it doesn’t really matter; you can’t take away what our team accomplished this year.”
And that, more than anything else, is what sent McDavid into the summer with a spring in his step, and has him counting the days until they’re all back on the ice.
“It was definitely a fun year,” said the 20-year-old, who led the league in scoring with 100 points, on a team that finished with 103. “Our team was great. It’s a team that’s fun to play for.
“All the guys got along well on and off the ice. Especially off the ice and I think that kind of translated on the ice as well with how we battled and how we wanted to play for one another. It was fun to be a part of that.”
It’s remarkable that a player who’s played less than two full seasons in the NHL, just 127 games, wins the scoring race and is up for the Hart, but McDavid, as everyone knew before he was even drafted, is a remarkable player.
Asked if he had to pinch himself over how fast it came together for him, he thought about it for a second and said no.
“Did it happen fast? Yes, I think so. But, for me, I expect the most out of myself and I expect to play at my best and see where that takes me. With the help of all my teammates and the great support staff that we have there in Edmonton, it definitely helped streamline the process. I’m very grateful to be in this position and be up for that.”
It’s a position he’s now expected to be in every year. Same goes for the team. As much as McDavid and the Oilers accomplished this season, even more will be expected of them next season.
It’s a challenge he can’t wait to tackle.
“I think you have to embrace it,” he said. “We talked about it at the end of the year that not many teams really celebrate being knocked out of the second round of the playoffs, but for everyone in Edmonton, it was almost like a Cinderella story. There was that kind of feel-good component to it.
“But, that definitely won’t be the case next year. We will have higher expectations. We have to create that standard in Edmonton that many great organizations have carried for a long time, the standard Edmonton certainly used to back in the 1980s.
“We definitely have to get back to a place where that is the standard and we all have to expect more from ourselves.”
With that in mind, McDavid begun training for next season within two weeks of being eliminated from the playoffs.
“I definitely took a week or two off, got away and had some time to shut it down,” he said. “But, for me, I’m at a place in my career and age where I have to keep going, I can’t really stop. I just don’t feel good if I’m not doing something. I’ve been back at it for a few weeks now and definitely feel pretty good.”
There’s no question that getting a taste of the playoffs in Edmonton has inspired them all, as well as showing those who didn’t know just how hard it is to go deep. That’s invaluable experience on both counts.
“We’ve shown what we were capable of this year and we still fell short,” said McDavid. “That tells us we still have to keep working, there are a lot of ways we can improve our game. Everyone has to get back to work.