SUNRISE — So, yes, in case you wondered, that’s Connor McDavid.
That’s the King of the North. That’s the oil to the Edmonton Oilers’ engine. That’s the player who has beaten the Florida Panthers the past two games in a way they can’t let him keep doing to the end of the Stanley Cup Final.
The Panthers go back to Edmonton again for Game 6 on Friday night after Tuesday’s 5-3 loss, back to a third game where the Stanley Cup can be theirs at night’s end, back to the Great Beyond of northwestern Canada to try to slow McDavid.
What happened to the team that’s seen their 3-0 lead this series tighten to 3-2? Pick your poison. The Panthers gave up a short-handed goal for the second consecutive game to start the night. Their characteristic strong defense that hadn’t allowed more than two goals in 12 of the previous 13 playoff games through Game 2 of the final has given up three, eight and five goals in the past three games.
But the big reason they’ve lost the past two games is McDavid was McMagic. His stated goal before this game was to “drag them back to Alberta” — but who knew he meant dragging the Panthers primarily by himself?
He’s had three goals and five assists the past two games, including a cherry-on-top empty-netter in Game 5. In a showcase second period, he had a goal and two assists to swing Tuesday night with each play better than the previous one.
The first assist as a secondary one where, yes, he started the play on the way to the goal that made it 2-0. Next came something more improbable: A billiard-shot angle where the 8-ball somehow went through Sergei Bobrovsky’s skates at the net.
Was it puck luck? Did he expect Bobrovsky to look for him to pass there and not to play the shot? He wasn’t exactly saying, though he wanted to rent some space in Bobrovsky’s head when asked to explain that goal.
“I don’t want to give away too much,” McDavid said. “There’s still hockey to be played. Coming down the side of the goal, I’ve gone short-side lots. … I look at how he’s standing.”
Finally, when the Panthers kept coming and closed to within 3-2, McDavid skated cleanly between two Panthers defenders, like a swimmer through water, before dishing the puck in front of the goalmouth to fourth-liner Corey Perry for a tap-in goal.
The equally impressive part: He had been on the ice for more than two minutes that shift. A minute is considered a long shift.
Game 5: Edmonton Oilers at Florida Panthers | PHOTOS
“He puts this team on his back,” Perry said. “You see why he’s the best player.”
McDavid broke Wayne Gretzky’s assist record for a postseason in Game 4 with 32. He added two more Tuesday. He has 41 total postseason pointsto rank fourth in a playoffs behind Gretzky (twice) and Mario Lemieux.
Do you see the rare air he’s breathing? And see what the Panthers must contend with now?
“I don’t know that his expected goals have increased in the last two,’’ Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Wednesday afternoon. “They’ve just gone (in) for him. But you would expect that to happen. I mean, if he gets X number of chances there’s going to be a point, whatever, six or seven percent of that going in.
“He’d have a higher percentage than most players, very possibly any player. We’ll have to limit that X, but we also understand that some are going in.”
He then added: “And it’s still 3-2.”
Yes, the Panthers still have the lead, he wanted to impress. The need is to stay out of the penalty box and rediscover their good defense. All playoffs they’ve shut down the opponent’s best player. Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov. Boston’s David Pastrnak. New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin.
Not McDavid. Not that his game is any surprise.
“It’s what we expect,” Edmonton’s Zach Hyman said. “Connor doing Connor things.”
Even when his plays weren’t leading to Edmonton goals, they were helping it survive the Panthers’ big push in the third period.
“He alleviated a lot of the pressure,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “He gave us breathing room out there.”
He’s dragging everyone back to Edmonton.
“You guys know what it’s like — it’s not the most enjoyable flight,” McDavid said to the media of the cross-continent trip.
Now the neverending trip looms again. Edmonton’s noise is waiting again. McDavid is, too. And a series that seemed to lack only the Panthers’ coronation at 3-0 asks them for something more.
“I’m not deflated,” Maurice said. “I’m not rubbing backs.”
Nor should he. The Panthers need one game, one good night. No one doubts they have that in them. The concern is the King of the North is taking over the stage.
