SUNRISE, Fla. (Associated Press) Connor McDavid He looked up to Sidney Crosby and saw him as the player he wanted to be like one day.
But when McDavid was a kid and pretending to score a Stanley Cup-winning goal, he always imagined himself in that position.
“You never know when you're going to get that opportunity.” McDavid “That opportunity is here.”
That opportunity only became possible after McDavid led the Edmonton Oilers from a 3-0 deficit in the Finals to force a Game 7. Florida Panthers game Now, with hockey's hallowed trophy on the line on Monday night, he and his teammates are trying to complete the greatest comeback in sports history, and they're trying to block out the effects and focus on accomplishing something that hasn't been done in the NHL since 1942.
“We all know it's not a normal game, but we've got to make it as normal as possible in our minds,” McDavid said after the Oilers' final practice of the season on Sunday. “Our team has done a great job of doing our best in these big moments, and I think that's going to be the same here.”
McDavid is He was at his best in the biggest moments of his first Cup Final appearance, recording four points each in Games 4 and 5 to prevent Edmonton from sweeping the NBA. Bring the Panthers Back Game 6 was played across North America in Alberta, and the Oilers won on home ice without him scoring.
McDavid, the three-time reigning league MVP, has never been held scoreless in two consecutive games in all of these playoff games and is the biggest X-factor on the big stage. Veteran winger Corey Perry, a 2007 Cup winner who is reaching his third final in four years, said of McDavid that he “can do magic at any point in the game.”
“Every game we know we have the best player in the world,” said McDavid's longtime partner, Leon Draisaitl, who was also an MVP after assisting on the opening goal. Game 6“But in this league, it's really tough to be missing one or two or three guys. You need the whole team and I think we proved that.”
Forward Matthias Janmark McDavid is the catalyst and the face In the final, this rally Selke Trophy Winners On the other side is Aleksandr Barkov, the best defensive forward, and the elite Goalkeeper Sergei BobrovskyIt will likely take more than the captain's magic to finish a job that was last done more than 80 years ago.
Draisaitl acknowledged that being human means dwelling on the bigger picture, the idea of joining the 1942 Maple Leafs with a name in the record books. Teammate Connor Brown called it “a chance to finish the script we've been writing.”
It's a scenario the Panthers would like to reverse. Win the first three games They finished the series strong and were one win away from clinching their first championship in franchise history, but nothing has gone right since then.
“It doesn't matter how it happened or how it was painted.” Florida winger Matthew Tkachuk “This is just an incredible opportunity. So, obviously, we want to recognize and remember some of the positives that helped us beat them earlier in the series, but I'm trying to forget about it all. We just need to go out there and win one game. That's all that matters.”
Edmonton coach Chris Knobloch This was foreshadowed when he said on the morning of Game 4, hours before the team faced elimination for the first time, “I'm really looking forward to the next 10 days.” It sounded delusional then, but prophetic now. The 8-1, 5-3, 5-1 victory saw them crush the Panthers 18-5 and send the series back to South Florida, where few expected there would be much more hockey played this season.
“I don't think there was ever a moment in the locker room where we thought they didn't have a chance,” Knobloch said.
Now, for McDavid, there's a chance to hoist the Cup in the same building where he was drafted nine years ago. Canada's title thirst continues At 31 years old and in his 30th season, he will add to his legend as the greatest player in all of hockey outside of his first NHL championship.
“We're excited,” McDavid said, “We've worked hard to get to this position and this is a great opportunity for our group and we're looking forward to it.”
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AP NHL Playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
