Edmonton Oilers captain is in his ninth season in the NHL
Edmonton Oilers captain is in his ninth season in the NHL
They say all great comes to those who wait. But unless your name is Alex Ovechkin, championships don't usually wait around for the greatest players in the sport to win them.
Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Sidney Crosby each won their first Stanley Cup in their fourth year in the NHL.
It took Mario Lemieux seven years to finally win. Patrick Kane was in Year Three, Nathan MacKinnon was in Year Nine, while Ovechkin was in his 13th year.
Which brings us to Connor McDavid.
The Edmonton Oilers captain is in his ninth season in the NHL. And he hasn't even reached the final yet.
Of course, all that can change this year.
After Monday's Game 7 win against the Vancouver Canucks, McDavid will be playing in his second conference final with a chance to finally win a championship and bring the Stanley Cup home to Canada.
McDavid, along with the Oilers, are the country's remaining hope at ending the 31-year drought.
It's another way of saying that it's time for McDavid to win. And if you're a fan of the sport, you should want for it to happen — even if you happen to live in Vancouver.
A player's legacy is tied to his ability to win championships. Individual awards are one thing. But hockey is a team sport, so we tend to measure greatness on the ability to win together as a team.
It is why three-time champion Jonathan Toews — and not Crosby — was once regarded as the greatest captain in the NHL.That is, until Crosby won back-to-back Cups in 2017 and 2018 and matched Toews' championships.
And it is why Ovechkin's career seemed forever clouded by his inability to win a Cup. For years, he was regarded as a coach killer, as a me-first player, as someone who was more concerned with padding his goal total rather than put his ego aside for the greater good. And then, after 13 long years, he finally won. And all those criticisms seemed to wash away.
No one is calling McDavid selfish. Certainly not after picking up 100 assists this season. But we have been calling him one of the greatest players of all time ever since he arrived in the NHL. Years from now, when he is retired, we will point to his scoring totals and his individual hardware as proof of that greatness. But if he wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with Gretzky, Orr, Howe and Crosby, then McDavid needs to start winning — and winning more than once.
McDavid knows it. He knows how close he came two years ago, when the Oilers lost to the Avalanche in the conference final, and then watched as MacKinnon hoisted the Cup. Every day, he walks past a championship trophy case that holds all the Cups that the Oilers have won.
Again, Gretzky and Howe had each won four championships by their ninth years in the league. Orr had won twice. Crosby had won his first of three.
You don't need to be an Oilers fan to appreciate McDavid's greatness. In 12 playoff games, he has 21 points. Only Leon Draisait (24 points) has scored more. But if you are a hockey fan, you should appreciate what he's meant to the sport — and how he can lift it to an even greater height.
McDavid is the face of the league. With his speed and offensive creativity, has the rare ability to pull in casual sports fans who don't normally pay attention to hockey. Like the greatest before him, he has that rare gift of making you care about a player, a team and a sport that you wouldn't normally care about.
In other words, McDavid needs to win. And, whether you are living in Toronto or Vancouver, you should cheer for him to win.
After all, his legacy — and the legacy of the sport — depends on it.