It's Happening. This Is The Year Connor McDavid Finally Gets The Job Done And Brings The Cup Home To Edmonton
Andy Devlin. Getty Images.The moment the clock struck zero in game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, everybody should have known. I'm sure there was a little bit of fear struck into every single player in the NHL now that Connor McDavid had gotten so close to accomplishing the ultimate dream, but having it ripped away from him at the very last moment.
Connor McDavid is the best hockey player on the planet. He has gotten progressively better seemingly every year of his life. From playing U16 to the OHL, to scoring 100 points in the NHL for the first time, to dragging his Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time. Every single year, Connor McDavid takes what he did in the previous year and says it's no longer good enough.
You knew he was going to be singularly focused and driven on not only getting back to the Stanley Cup Final, but making sure there blue/orange gloves and blue helmets strewn across the ice once it's all over. And now here they are just one more win away from getting back to the Cup Final.
There hasn't been a team in the NHL to lose back-to-back Stanley Cups since the Boston Bruins in 1977-78. The Oilers lost the Cup Final in 1983, and then went on to win 4 out of the next 5. The Penguins lost the Cup Final in 2008 before Sidney Crosby won his first Cup the following year in 2009. The Panthers lost the Cup Final in 2023 before winning last year.
Moral of the story here is that teams don't lose twice in a row. Over the past 45 years there haven't been a ton of opportunities for teams to lose two Finals in a row, but teams that get back to the Final after losing the previous year have gone 3-0 since then. Teams that had Gretzky. Teams that had Crosby. And now we're just 5 more wins away from adding "teams that have McDavid" to the list.
There are still plenty of obstacles to overcome. The Curse of Corey Perry, being one of them. Potentially losing Zach Hyman for an extended period of time being another. But guys like Connor McDavid don't lose twice in a row. The sooner we accept the fact that the Oilers are just a couple weeks away from being Stanley Cup Champs, the easier it'll be on all of us.