If we've learned anything from the Edmonton Oilers this decade. In that case, we've learned once and for all that it's impossible to win in the contemporary NHL without a complete team, even if you've got the best player in the world and, at times, the second-best player in the world.
The Oilers were different this year, and maybe it took a gut check when McDavid was injured early in the season and the team around him decided to step up. They went from a league-worst 2-9-1 start to the season to the best points percentage (.703) after head coach Kris Knoblauch was hired mid-November.
"Everybody's buying in. Everybody's doing a lot of good things, and we're getting goaltending," McDavid told TNT postgame. "It wasn't the prettiest of closeouts tonight, but Stu closed it off, our back end blocked so many shots."
The top four playoff scorers in the NHL right now? McDavid with five goals and 31 points in 18 games. Leon Draisaitl with 10 goals and 28 points in 18 games. Evan Bouchard with six goals and 27 points in 18 games. The longest-suffering Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with six goals and 20 points in 18 games. Leading goal-scorer in the playoffs? Zach Hyman, has 14 goals in 18 games.
Meanwhile, on defense, Edmonton was perfect on the penalty kill in the Western Conference Final (more on that later), Stuart Skinner held his own in net, Darnell Nurse is turning things around, and Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm have been revelations.
Bouchard is the modern, coveted, and elusive No. 1 defenseman who has been sorely missing from the Oilers' Cup dreams in the McDavid era. His sixth multi-assist game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs made him the seventh defenseman in NHL history to record as many in a single postseason. In Game 6, he also became the sixth defenseman in NHL history to record 20 assists in a postseason.
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2024-06-03 04:52:30Z
CBMigAFodHRwczovL2JsZWFjaGVycmVwb3J0LmNvbS9hcnRpY2xlcy8xMDEyMzM3NS00LXdheXMtY29ubm9yLW1jZGF2aWQtYW5kLXRoZS1vaWxlcnMtZmluYWxseS1nb3Qtb3Zlci10aGUtaHVtcC10by1zdGFubGV5LWN1cC1maW5hbNIBkAFodHRwczovL3N5bmRpY2F0aW9uLmJsZWFjaGVycmVwb3J0LmNvbS9hbXAvMTAxMjMzNzUtNC13YXlzLWNvbm5vci1tY2RhdmlkLWFuZC10aGUtb2lsZXJzLWZpbmFsbHktZ290LW92ZXItdGhlLWh1bXAtdG8tc3RhbmxleS1jdXAtZmluYWwuYW1wLmh0bWw
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