Connor McDavid, wizard
The Edmonton Oilers star has lived up to all the hype, but Game 7 against the Florida Panthers won't define his legacy
Ten years ago I covered one of the strangest sporting events I had witnessed up to that point. It was a spring NHL game in Buffalo, between the Sabres and the visiting Phoenix Coyotes. (Or Arizona Coyotes, whatever.)
The Sabres and Coyotes were jockeying for the worst record in the league, because the upcoming draft had two potential franchise players: Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. The draft lottery rules at the time meant that while no one could guarantee themselves the top pick, having the worst record meant a team would draft no worse than the second pick. It made for a uniquely tank-forward situation. Being the cellar team was a rare opportunity to get, at worst, one of two players who were thought to be the best prospects in ages. A few months before that weird night in Buffalo, McDavid and Eichel had led Canada and the United States at the World Juniors, held in Montreal and Toronto that year, and it was evident then that these guys were exceptional. Eichel looked perfectly comfortable even as a teenager playing on a loaded team and McDavid was basically mind-blowing. I spent a lot of time during that tournament trying to figure how he accelerated so much with what looked like such easy effort. He would take the puck at one end of the ice and after a few strides be absolutely flying past opponents. It was wild.
And so, the fans at KeyBank Arena mostly wanted the Sabres to lose. Some had signs and McJESUS banners and the whole bit, and when Buffalo scored a late goal, there were far more boos than cheers. Ted Nolan, the coach at the time, said he was disappointed that Sabres fans would root against their own.
Perhaps the hockey gods agreed, because they secured the worst record, got jumped in the draft lottery by Edmonton, and ended up with Eichel. He’s had a decent career, but no one would confuse him with a generational talent. He played six seasons in Buffalo, the Sabres stunk the whole time, and he griped his way out of town, eventually getting traded to Vegas. He won a Stanley Cup there, just to rub salt in Buffalo’s wounds.
And Connor McDavid became the transformative star that Sabres fans had spent that entire season dreaming of getting as they were rooting for losses.
McDavid’s time in Edmonton hasn’t all been cotton candy and unicorns, but through no fault of his own. The Oilers have had their problems, even as he has racked up five scoring titles and a passel of MVP awards.
But with Game 7 against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night, McDavid has already done all that could have been expected of him, and more. He’s otherworldly, and if the Oilers can’t finish a never-before-seen reverse sweep, that doesn’t change. My latest at theScore considers the McDavid legacy, as history awaits.
Play the kids! other kids!
Rarely does a column get overtaken by events quite as quickly as the one I filed Friday morning on the Toronto Blue Jays. It made the case for benching the veterans who have been terrible at the plate for the better part of three months now and playing the kids instead. Why not give as many at-bats as possible to Orelvis Martinez, the 22-year-old infielder who had one of the best home-run totals in the minor leagues?
On Sunday, Martinez was suspended for 80 games for a violation of PED rules. Doping is an absolute-liability offence, meaning there is never a good excuse for how a banned substance found its way into your body, but Martinez is said to have had a fertility drug, which has performance-enhancing benefits, in his system. That’s a particularly bad look. Oh, Orelvis. We didn’t even get a chance to make Elvis puns in headlines yet.
Anyway, this Blue Jays season should be stashed in a locker and buried at the bottom of the sea. Gah.