McDavid vs. MacKinnon a gift to fans
Series could be a showdown for the ages starring two of NHL’s brightest stars
For the NHL, it’s a rare dream matchup on a final-four stage.
Teams win, sure, but individuals sell. And the individuals on the marquee of the Western Conference final between Edmonton and Colorado, which begins Tuesday night in Denver, are as saleable as hockey gets.
Connor McDavid, the 25-year-old from Newmarket who’s long been the face of the perennially frustrated Oilers, has advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs for the first time since he was drafted No. 1 overall seven years ago. And if McDavid is taking the biggest stage of his career a little later in life than he would have liked, at least he has arrived in form.
It’s hardly a coincidence that the top three point-getters in the NHL playoffs are McDavid and his linemates, Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane. McDavid has used the opening two rounds to cement himself as not only the best player on the planet, but perhaps the only one who’s capable of winning games on his own.
As Calgary Flames coach Darryl Sutter said when he was asked if the best team won the second-round Battle of Alberta: “The best player won the series for them.”
Of those not named McDavid who’ve occasionally made a credible case for world supremacy over the past handful of years, maybe the best has been Nathan MacKinnon of the Avalanche, the No. 1 pick nine years ago. For the second straight time, McDavid and MacKinnon were one-two in TSN’s annual preseason ranking of the top 50 players in the NHL. And as much as McDavid has dominated the league’s individual awards — winning four scoring titles, three Ted Lindsays and two Hart Trophies to date — MacKinnon, age 26, has almost always found himself in the conversation for MVP. The engine that drives the Avalanche has been a finalist for the Hart Trophy in three of the previous four regular seasons. He probably should have won in 2018, when
Taylor Hall squeaked by him at the wire.
There are levels of players. And if you saw MacKinnon’s end-to-end goal in Game 5 of Colorado’s second-round series win over St. Louis, it looked an awful lot like some of the puck-on-a-string, team-on-hisback dominance that’s been displayed by McDavid and no one else.
“I mean, (McDavid and MacKinnon are) going to be the greatest players of their era, if not two of them” is how Ken Holland, the Oilers’ general manager, summed up the ensuing matchup to NHL.com.
So it’s McDavid versus MacKinnon, but it’s not the only compelling matchup on the card.
It’s also Zach Hyman versus Nazem
Kadri, the much-missed former Maple Leafs who are providing to the Oilers and Avalanche, respectively, plenty of what Toronto has lacked since they left. It’s also Cale Makar, Colorado’s Norris Trophy finalist, versus Draisaitl. Whether or not McDavid and MacKinnon are the two best players in the league, Makar and Draisaitl certainly qualify as the finest second-best players any team could ask for. Unless you count Mikko Rantanen, Colorado’s best forward not named MacKinnon.
So there’s star quality. And there’s certainly prolific offence to go with it. The Oilers and Avalanche have been the highest-scoring teams in the Stanley Cup tournament. And if all the goals give you a retro vibe, consider that this will be the first NHL conference final since the 1980s in which both teams arrive averaging more than four goals a game in the post-season.
The dream matchup is an aspirational example of how long it can take to find a path to a destination other than playoff heartbreak. Leafs management can point to the Oilers when they defend the organization’s failure to exit the opening round for six straight post-seasons. This is McDavid’s seventh season, after all. And in his first six he won precisely one more playoff series than the likes of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
Of course, when you’re rationalizing perennial failure by pointing to a franchise that, until now, has endured almost nothing but an annual dose of the same, you’re playing a loser’s game.
Certainly one’s tolerance for frustration is relative. If the Leafs had managed the Avalanche’s record in the lead-up to this playoff run — and Colorado won three playoff series in the previous three years — there’d be plenty of celebrating in Leafland. Still, three first-round wins followed by second-round exits weren’t seen as triumphs in Denver. Last year, after the Avalanche were knocked out by the Golden Knights, MacKinnon was a picture of despair.
“I’m going into my ninth year next year and haven’t won s---,” he said.
So you’ll understand why, even if a championship is the goal, MacKinnon took a moment to exhale after the Avalanche eliminated the Blues on Friday night.
“Obviously the job’s not finished, but that’s a great accomplishment for us,” MacKinnon said. “We’ve been in some dark times. So it’s nice to get over this hump, for sure.”
McDavid, too, has expressed his share of despondency at previous failures. And now, after all that scar tissue, here’s a chance at the four wins that’ll produce a sacred ticket to the Cup final. Here’s a chance for the two greatest players of the era, or something close, to give us a showdown for the ages.