2024-25 Playoff Focus: Connor McDavid (GM1 vs. FLA)

Patience is a virtue

Credit: NHL.com

Florida may be the only team that boasts the system and personnel to make Connor McDavid look human.

In that respect, Wednesday night was reminiscent of last year’s Stanley Cup Final. Right from the jump, Paul Maurice’s club threw a maze of bodies at the NHL’s best player to derail his progress (EDM 97):

Given the attention he’s drawing (tight strong-side defender + forward support on the inside), don’t be surprised if head coach Kris Knoblauch revisits his late-series adjustment from a season ago (feeding him later in the transition phase) to rustle up some space for his home run threat.

Even without that puck-carrying sizzle, though, a patient and polished McDavid was able to propel his squad to victory in Game 1. This was a “trust the process” performance—and his trust paid off in the end.

If you weren’t already convinced of his buy-in this spring, consider how engaged he was on the defensive side of the puck. His in-zone coverage will never earn him Selke recognition, but he’s been tracking back like a demon (i.e. like Vasily Podkolzin) throughout the postseason. That closing speed was pivotal in the opening frame:

McDavid couldn’t impose his will on a team that’s so prepared for his NZ bursts. Rather than cheat for offense (he’s been guilty of this in previous years), then, he fortified Edmonton’s structure and waited for his opportunities.

The first materialized on the PK:

While tumbling to the ice, Sam Bennett (FLA 9) attempts to poke the puck back to Nate Schmidt (FLA 88). McDavid pounces, weighs his options on the 2-on-1 and gets his pass blocked. However, he quickly snatches the loose biscuit and goes forehand —> crossbar.

No worries. No frustration. After all, no one can play a perfect game. That includes the reigning champs, whose boldness toes a fine line between suffocating and sloppy. There will be more chances.

Leon Draisaitl (EDM 29) orchestrates the next one by dancing Sam Reinhart (FLA 23) to the outside and briefly dragging Seth Jones (FLA 3) with him on entry:

That extra beat offers McDavid the luxury of scanning middle ice, and he spots arguably the league’s finest point shooter (Evan Bouchard, EDM 2) on the weak side for a decent bid.

Better yet, watch him hustle to get above Reinhart and extinguish another of the Panthers’ quick-strike designs:

Blanketing McDavid is a tall order under any circumstances. Doing so on the road, where Knoblauch can dictate the matchups? That’s pretty much impossible. Sure enough, he would eventually find the ideal conditions to break through on the score sheet:

• Matthew Tkachuk (FLA 19) and Dmitry Kulikov (FLA 7), the two slowest Panthers, are tasked with strong-side duty on the league’s preeminent speed merchant. This grants Edmonton’s captain an additional half-second to gain the OZ and locate an outlet (Kasperi Kapanen, EDM 42).

• To make matters worse for the Panthers, Kulikov scrambles from one mark to another, loses his depth on McDavid and concedes a goal-line touch.

• Then a little luck for Edmonton’s captain. His centering pass ramps up off Sergei Bobrovsky’s (FLA 72) stick and straight into Mattias Ekholm’s (EDM 14) wheelhouse.

13-and-a-half minutes left. Whole new ballgame:

McDavid’s below-the-dots menace would become a recurring pattern in the back half of the contest. Initiating his action lower in the OZ proved far more effective than hoping to brute-force the puck through Florida’s NZ wall.

Watch him sneak behind Aleksander Barkov (FLA 16) on a Draisaitl keep-in:

Since Maurice’s tactics (heavy forecheck + aggro NZ defense) are tailor-made to stop McDavid’s rushes, it follows that shorter blitzes would yield greater success. They did last year, and they did once more in Game 1. The OT winner, although on the PP, reinforced this wrinkle’s potency:

Direct and accurate link-ups can counter Florida’s manic pressure on the PK. Corey Perry (EDM 90) obliges, McDavid curls in to pull Barkov toward him and Draisaitl hammers the sauce home to preserve home-ice advantage.

The Panthers kept Edmonton’s top dog from running wild, yet he still came through when it mattered most, manufacturing the game-tying and game-winning markers.

Game 1 demonstrated how quickly McDavid can bury you. Moreover, it shed light on a viable alternative to the Oilers’ “give it to Connor ASAP” habit. Delay his takeoff. Use him as the second link in the chain. Forcing defenders to claim other forwards before relaying the puck to him in space could break this series wide open.

On the night, he registered 2 primary assists in 31:12 TOI.

Here are the full highlights:

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