McDavid delivers signature moment for Oilers in Game 6

EDMONTON — Connor McDavid has had so many "wow" moments in his illustrious career, even those who know him best have lost count.

But never on this grandest of stages. Never against such a high quality opponent like this. And never when it mattered more, at least at the National Hockey League level.

With his first career appearance in a Stanley Cup Final on the line, with a chance to further establish his legacy in the balance, the Edmonton Oilers forward turned in what coach Kris Knoblauch called “the best performance of anyone on the ice” en route to a 2-1 victory over the Dallas Stars at a frenzied Rogers Place on Sunday.

It was a victory that gave the Oilers a 4-2 series win in the best-of-7 Western Conference Final, punching their ticket into the Final against the Florida Panthers.

And it was one punctuated by yet another goal for the ages by McDavid, something teammate Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said looked like it came right out of a video game.

“It’s mind-boggling to see him pull off something like that,” the Oilers forward said of McDavid’s goal at 4:17 of the first period. “For him to pull off a play like that tonight is incredible. That’s why he’s our leader.

“You never get used to it.”

Who would, given the spectacular nature of the play the 27-year-old pulled off?

With Dallas defenseman Chris Tanev in the penalty box for hooking, McDavid eluded Stars forward Sam Steel at the bottom of the left face-off circle before cutting in toward Miro Heiskanen. When the Stars' top defenseman looked to have cut off his path to the net, McDavid completed a ridiculous toe-drag around him before backhanding the puck past goalie Jake Oettinger to give the Oilers a lead they would never relinquish.

While the capacity throng of 18,347 went bonkers, Heiskanen could only shake his head in disbelief. Stars coach Pete DeBoer had the same type of look on his face as he watched the replay on the center ice video screen.

About the only person in the building who wasn’t amazed at what Connor McDavid had just pulled off was, well, Connor McDavid.

“I like being on that left side, I like being on that left flank, tried to get to the middle of the rink. That was the best way I thought possible and got the backhand on net,” he said matter-of-factly.

He made it sound ordinary. Maybe to him it was. It wasn’t for anyone else.

Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl was sitting next to McDavid at the postgame press conference when he heard the response from the Edmonton captain. He wore a big grin as he listened to his teammate downplay the goal. For Draisaitl, there was nothing ordinary about what his friend had accomplished.

“There’s only one player in the world that can make that happen,” Draisaitl said.

Knoblauch couldn’t agree more.

The Oilers coach has seen McDavid’s magic since the center was a 15-year-old playing for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League, where Knoblauch was the coach at the time. He’s seen all kinds of toe-drags, dipsy doodles and dangling dekes from this generational talent, and through it all, keeps wondering what’s coming next, even after all these years.

“It’s still astonishing,” Knoblauch said of McDavid’s goal and his overall play.

Perhaps the only person other than McDavid who wasn’t awed by his display was former NHL goaltender Curtis Joseph, who was intensely watching the game on TV.

When McDavid was growing up in Newmarket, about 40 miles north of Toronto, he became friends with Tristan Joseph, Curtis’s son. The boys started out playing lacrosse together and, just one year later, were linemates on the York-Simcoe hockey team.

Every now and then, Joseph would invite the kids to come play in "The Barn." There were no cows or hay or chickens in this farm building, though. No, this was the custom-made ice rink Joseph had built inside his barn, one of the centerpieces of his sprawling King City-area ranch south of Newmarket.

As such, when Joseph watched McDavid’s goal Sunday, he said he’d seen that move before.

“Oh yes,” Joseph said via text late Sunday night. “When he was six. I was in the NHL at the time and I could only stop him because of his lack of reach at the time. Ha!”

His reach, Joseph admits, is far better now.

“It’s great to see him on the big stage going to the final,” said Joseph, who played 943 NHL games for the Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings and Phoenix Coyotes from 1989-2009.

“It’s not easy.”

McDavid understands that. He admits it’s been a “rocky road” to get to the final in this, his ninth NHL season. At the same time, he won’t be satisfied until he hoists the Stanley Cup, which is still four wins away.

“It feels like a dream,” he said.

The Oilers were not the better team on this night on a number of levels. They spent far too much time in their own zone. They were outshot 34-10. But they had goalie Stuart Skinner playing arguably his best game as an Oiler. And, as forward Zach Hyman said, they had Connor McDavid doing Connor McDavid things.

In his illustrious career, McDavid has won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s scoring leader five times, and the Hart Trophy as the League's most valuable player three times. He leads the 2024 postseason scoring race with 31 points (five goals, 26 assists) and is only the sixth player in NHL history to have accrued at least 30 points in a playoff year more than once.

Yet for all those accomplishments, winning the title is what matters most.

“For that to happen, there’s still work to be done,” he said.

If Sunday is any indication, it certainly will be fun watching him try to do it.