Connor McDavid imagined this moment.
Growing up in the northern suburbs of Toronto, the glories of hockey danced in his mind’s eye – on outdoor rinks, in stadiums and on the streets with friends.
Like so many Canadian kids.
“You always dreamed of yourself playing in that game and scoring a big goal,” McDavid said. “I’m not sure you’ll get that opportunity.”
After a roller coaster season and a playoff full of twists and turns, the stage is set for the superstar captain.
McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers face the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Monday. This is the final obstacle on this season’s unlikely journey.
Disastrous start to the itinerary. Last place in overall ranking. Coaching changes. They are on a near-record winning streak. Playoff pushback.
And after falling behind 3-0 in the title series, they have won three in a row.
“It was fun to be a part of it,” McDavid said. “The group has played their best hockey over the last seven or eight days. We feel good about where things are.
“One game and it’s over.”
Edmonton is looking to become just the fifth team in NHL history to win a best-of-seven series after coming from a 3-0 deficit. Some 82 years ago, during World War II, in 1942, the Toronto Maple Leafs upset the Detroit Red Wings in the Finals, making them the only club to achieve the feat.
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The Oilers, who last sat atop the NHL mountain in 1990 when the franchise won its fifth title, may end a Cup drought for the Canadian-based club dating back to the Montreal Canadiens’ 1993 victory.
“We’re all human, we’re all aware of the situation and what we’ve accomplished so far,” said Edmonton center Leon Draisaitl, playing the Robin to McDavid’s Batman during his career in Alberta’s capital.
“We have to focus and do our best to win one hockey game on the road.
“Everything will resolve itself later.”
Florida took a 3-0 lead before McDavid won Games 4 and 5 with a pair of captivating four-point displays.
The Oilers then won Game 6 at home, 5-1, on Friday. The Cup has been polished for the third time and is ready to be presented to the Panthers. We sent everyone back to South Florida.
“Just hang in there,” said Edmonton center Adam Henrique. “We trust each other.”
Meanwhile, Florida is aiming to avoid an ugly spot in the record books.
The Panthers remain well-positioned to win the franchise’s first Cup after losing in the 1996 finals and again last spring.
But the motivation of not having your name associated with a massive collapse can be just as great a motivation.
“It doesn’t matter how it disappeared or how it was put together,” Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said at the team’s Fort Lauderdale practice facility ahead of the 1,400th and final contest of the NHL campaign.
“They lost the first three, we lost the next three… It’s still the same now. It doesn’t matter what happened to get to this point.
“It’s easy to forget.”
Edmonton, which has an overall score of 20-5 over its last 10 games, rides on solid goaltending Stuart Skinner and a detail-oriented defensive structure to get to a position not many outside the locker room expected to be in just 10 days ago.
But it’s slightly easier to believe that your team has the best player in the world.
“He can do magic things,” Edmonton winger Corey Perry said of McDavid, a three-time NHL MVP. “It’s not like he flips a switch, he’s suddenly dancing between three or four guys.”
The only Oilers player with a Cup ring won it in 2007 with Anaheim. Perry lost to Dallas in 2020, Montreal in 2021 and Tampa Bay in 2022.
“You dream of playing seven games on the backyard rink, on the street, and being a hero,” he said.
“Now it has become a reality. Now you can live like that. Someone, and I hope he’s in this room. “He will go down in history as a hero.”
The Panthers hope to do the same.
“I was one of those kids,” Florida captain Alexander Barkov said. “I’m thinking, ‘This is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.’ You think about that moment.
“Now it’s becoming a reality. It’s the most exciting time to be a hockey player.”
With the greatest distance between cities in the finals (Edmonton and Sunrise are more than 4,000 kilometers apart), it’s somewhat fitting that they run that distance.
“It’s taken a long time to get to this point,” said McDavid, the No. 1 draft pick in 2015 and the most notable hockey talent since Sidney Crosby.
“There were many ups and downs, and I learned many lessons along the way.”
And have lots of dreams about what Monday will bring.
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