NEWSLETTER
I’ve done some Stanley Cup Final game recaps, and I think there has been a time and place for those. But after Games 4 and 5, there’s really only one way to analyze what we’ve seen. Connor McDavid has reached an entirely new level.
McDavid has been the best player in the world for quite a while now. His teams have come up short in the playoffs in the past, but never really because of his doing. This year kind of felt like it was going to be the same. McDavid goes off, but the team just isn’t quite good enough and runs out of gas. Then McDavid kicked it up another gear.
Connor McDavid Has Taken Over The Stanley Cup Final
In the last two games – both Oiler wins that have cut the once Panthers 3-0 series lead to 3-2 – #97 has eight points. Four points in each game, two goals and two assists in Game 4 and one goal and three assists in Game 5. Last night McDavid became the first player to record 40 points in a single postseason since some guy named Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky also owns the single-postseason record for points at 47, which McDavid now trails by just five points.
Long story short, over the last two games the best player in the world has been far and away the best player in the world. Game 4 was a clunker for Florida, but it’s not like they were all that bad in Game 5. McDavid was just better. Can he keep the team on his back for two more wins? Can Sergei Bobrovsky have himself a night like Game 1 where it just doesn’t matter what Edmonton throws at him? Those are questions we’ll find out the answers to soon enough.
Sometimes the obvious answer is the best one. Sure, there are other factors that have gone into Edmonton taking momentum back in this series. Darnell Nurse has been better. Stuart Skinner has kicked it up a notch. Florida’s slow starts have killed momentum and Sergei Bobrovsky has looked human. But ultimately what this series has come down to the last two games is that while Florida might have the deeper roster (and some really good players) they don’t have Connor McDavid. Edmonton does. And that’s why this series is going back to Alberta for Game 6.
