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“Drag ’em again to Alberta” was Connor McDavid’s oft-quoted mission assertion for Sport 5 of the Stanley Cup closing final night time in Florida. He made it occur, scoring two objectives — together with the game-clinching empty netter — and aiding on two others within the Oilers’ series-extending 5-3 win.
The Panthers hoped to hoist the Cup on house ice. As a substitute, McDavid’s second consecutive four-point efficiency along with his staff dealing with elimination pressured his opponents to take the 4,000-km aircraft journey again to the NHL’s northernmost outpost for Sport 6 on Friday night time. Suppose the Edmonton followers will probably be fired up for that one?
By way of a famous person hockey participant backing up his phrases, “Drag ’em again to Alberta” adopted by a four-point night time is possibly not fairly on the extent of Mark Messier’s hat trick and help after promising the Rangers would survive their must-win Sport 6 of the 1994 Jap Convention closing towards New Jersey. However give it time. Messier’s so-called assure (he did not truly say the phrase) grew to become legend when the Rangers went on to win Sport 7 of that collection after which seize their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. If McDavid and the Oilers change into the primary staff for the reason that 1942 Maple Leafs to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win the Cup closing, you may be seeing “Drag ’em again to Alberta” t-shirts in oil nation for years to come back (somebody already made a rustic music out of it, by the best way).
Cool catchphrases apart, McDavid’s efficiency in these playoffs is already one for the ages. His three assists in Edmonton’s 8-1 victory in Sport 4 broke Wayne Gretzky’s long-standing document of 31 assists in a single post-season. Now, with eight objectives and 34 assists in 23 video games, McDavid is simply 5 factors away from the Nice One’s seemingly untouchable document of 47 factors in 1985, which till now had by no means been critically threatened by anybody however Gretzky himself and Mario Lemieux.
WATCH | McDavid, Oilers ship Stanley Cup closing again to Alberta for Sport 6:
Edmonton captain Connor McDavid scored twice and added two helpers as Edmonton defeated Florida 5-3 Tuesday forcing a Sport 6.
Sure, Gretzky set the factors document in simply 18 video games — an absurd common of two.6 factors per sport that we’ll most likely by no means see once more. However McDavid’s 1.83 common in these playoffs could be very near the 1.91 that Lemieux had in 1991 when he completed with 44 factors — the second-highest complete ever.
One other approach to recognize McDavid’s playoff numbers: utilized to an 82-game common season, his 1.83 factors per sport works out to 150 factors. Solely six gamers in historical past have reached that plateau (together with McDavid in 2022-23, when he gained his fifth scoring title and third MVP). And do not forget that objectives are tougher to come back by within the playoffs.
In the meantime, McDavid is blowing his contemporaries out of the water. He has 10 extra factors than anybody else within the post-season and eight extra assists (Oiler teammate Evan Bouchard ranks second in each).
If the Oilers change into the primary staff in 82 years to come back again from down 3-0 to win the Cup, McDavid will clearly be a unanimous selection for playoff MVP. However you can also make a powerful case that he deserves the Conn Smythe Trophy it doesn’t matter what.
Usually, the award goes to somebody from the Cup-winning staff. However that is not a rule. It is only a conference that the voters (members of the Skilled Hockey Writers Affiliation) are likely to comply with. The NHL merely says that the trophy ought to go to “probably the most priceless participant for his staff within the playoffs.”
Certainly, 5 gamers from a staff that misplaced the ultimate have gained the Conn Smythe: Detroit’s Roger Crozier in 1966, St. Louis’ Glenn Corridor in 1968, Philadelphia’s Reggie Leach in 1976, Philly’s Ron Hextall in 1987 and Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2003.
One other delusion is that the ultimate has to go the space for somebody on the shedding staff to win the Conn Smythe. That was the case for Hextall and Giguere, however Crozier’s staff misplaced in six whereas Corridor’s and Leach’s truly bought swept. So McDavid has a shot even when he cannot drag the collection again to Florida.
WATCH | Oilers followers preserve Stanley Cup hopes alive:
After a tense finish to Sport 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, the Edmonton Oilers have saved their desires alive and are headed again to the town of champions for an additional contest towards the Florida Panthers. CBC’s Nancy Carlson was available at Ice District in Edmonton and met up with some followers who won’t ever lose hope.
Standard knowledge additionally says that solely a goalie may win the Conn Smythe on a shedding staff. There’s one thing plainly heroic a few man standing as much as a barrage of pucks from a superior foe, and 4 of the 5 shedding Conn Smythe recipients manned the cage. However Leach was a ahead whose stats have been just too unbelievable to disregard: he scored 19 (!) objectives in 16 playoff video games whereas nobody else had greater than eight. And his 24 factors put him 5 forward of the pack. Sound acquainted?
It helped Leach that the highest scorer on the Montreal Canadiens staff that swept his Flyers, Man Lafleur, ranked simply third in objectives and factors. In McDavid’s case, if the Panthers win one of many subsequent two video games, they do not actually have an apparent selection for Conn Smythe both.
Early within the collection, it seemed like Sergei Bobrovsky was the frontrunner. However he bought lit up for 5 objectives on 16 pictures in Sport 4 and gave up one other 4 final night time. Matthew Tkachuk is Florida’s scoring chief and an intense competitor (see his incredible diving save into an empty web final night time) however he ranks simply fourth in factors with an unspectacular 22 in 22 video games and trails third-place Oiler Leon Draisaitl by eight. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov has 21 factors and is likely one of the premier defensive forwards in hockey, however he may be dropping by the wayside after two straight scoreless video games.
McDavid is headed in the wrong way. He is the primary participant ever to document consecutive four-point video games within the Stanley Cup closing, and he is already damaged the document for many factors when dealing with elimination within the closing. And he is not finished but.
