OILERS MAKE A STATEMENT WITH VICTORY OVER KINGS
Mcdavid, teammates proved themselves in team's most important game in 32 years
It was the most massive moment and the most significantly important victory in Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup playoff history since the last time they played a Game 7 here 32 years ago.
That was in 1990 when they last won the Cup.
It was the ultimate game and back-to-back games, considering everything involved, that captain Connor Mcdavid has played in his entire career.
It was a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings in which Cody Ceci was officially the Stanley Cup hero scoring the series winning goal. Mcdavid had the assist. The Los Angeles Kings hung around, hung around and hung around. And it was an incredible virtuoso scoring play that combined skill and will that you are ever likely to witness by Mcdavid in front of 18,347 who were eyewitnesses. For Mcdavid it was his sixth multi-point night in the series.
How would Mcdavid rate this in all the moments of his NHL career so far? What does it mean to the team he captains going forward? And what does it say about this team?
“It is definitely up there,” Mcdavid began “But that being said it's just one round. There is a long way to go here. We're happy to move on to the second round but that's all we did. Survived another day.”
I tried another tack, asking No. 97 about the accomplishment involved in playing about as complete a game as the Oilers could have played.
“Yeah, it feels good to do it in that fashion. There's always a lot of talk about the defensive side of the game, so for our group and to play like that in a 2-0 win with contributions from everyone, it feels good.”
The Oilers failed spectacularly in not following through after their 6-0 and 8-2 wins, and creating two elimination games and damn near making it three consecutive seasons of not getting out of the first round. They also suffered several apparent injuries that will make it way more difficult go deep in the playoffs, including one to Leon Draisaitl.
It wasn't what the Oilers announced to the hockey world Saturday night. It was what they proved to themselves in this first season with the Mcdavid-draisaitl Stanley Cup window open.
I took the same tack with head coach Jay Woodcroft.
How important was this win beyond advancing to the second round?
“As for moving forward here I think that series pushed us in a certain way that made us grow. We learned a lot about ourselves over the last two weeks and the price that has to be paid at this time of the year,” he said.
Bingo!
“We tried to put an emphasis on playing the game tight, making sure there wasn't big separation among our players. Ever since Dave Manson and I came up from Bakersfield (Calif.), our work back to our own end has been a real focal point. Tonight in one of the most pressure-filled situations of our year, in these last two elimination games that we were facing, we had habits that held up under pressure.
That's a good sign for us moving forward.”
And what about Mcdavid?
Had Woodcroft ever seen a more impressive set of back-toback games by an individual player than the two that Mcdavid put together in Games 6 and Game 7? “No.”
That was his answer.
Pressed to expand on that, Woodcroft did.
“You guys saw what I saw — I just had an ice-level seat. The one thing I keep coming back to is that he's driven to win. He's a fantastic teammate. He's a great leader. And I'm happy for him.”
Draisaitl, like his coach, didn't downplay the Oilers' progress.
“It's big for sure,” said the warrior who skated through an apparent semi-serious ankle injury.
“It feels good to do it with this group. We've been through a lot of ups and downs and a lot of negative stuff all season and for a lot of years. To go through this adversity down three games to two, to go into L.A. facing elimination and grinding one out and coming home and doing this ... it feels great.”
And Mcdavid?
“Connor is the best player in the world and he showed he is in the last two games,” said Draisaitl.
The Oilers' biggest win in 32 years.
Mcdavid's greatest two games.