When talking about how great of a playoff run Connor McDavid is having, one has to look no further than his assist on the eventual game-winning goal in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final to help the Edmonton Oilers drag the Florida Panthers back to Alberta. McDavid was boxed in by all four penalty killers in a fashion that almost nobody on earth could wiggle their way out of. But this is Connor friggin’ McDavid we’re talking about here.
.. McDavid found the tiniest of holes between Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola, performed a windmill deke to perfection with both of them reaching in to try and get the stick off of him, and blew right past them while retaining possession before dishing the puck off to Corey Perry.
That’s just what the greatest player of this generation is capable of doing, no matter how good you defend him. No One Covers the Florida Panthers Like FHN. Period.
The Panthers have learned that the hard way over the past couple of games. After taking a 3-0 lead behind valiant defensive efforts and excellent goaltending by Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida appeared to have that figured out — but you cannot hold McDavid down forever. In Games 3 and 4, McDavid rattled off a total of eight points — four points in each game — and all of a sudden it’s a 3-2 series heading back to Edmonton.
He is a special enough player to single-handedly take over a series, and he has been doing that all series. And perhaps he is doing it better than anyone else has ever been able to i.