The Stanley Cup, Connor McDavid, and the playoff space

There always comes a time, around the second week of June, when the relaxing virtues of the scent of lilacs and Virus' catchy song aren't enough, I need something stronger. It's a Saturday night in North America, and the magic of childhood memories takes me to the family living room where we washed down Yum Yum chips and chocolate bars with glasses of Coke or Seven Up, while on what wasn't a giant screen, the heroes dipped their forelocks in champagne from the glass.

So it was decided: I would make a man of myself, take out my credit card and get my monthly package from TVA Sports, and tell myself that my guilty pleasure was worth a meditation session, with Michel Therrien in the role of the teacher with the low voice and hushed tone of a great Zen master.

I already knew Script : A team of talented players, elegant skaters and natural scorers against a goalkeeper hot The watch and its training are “designed for the series”. On the map, 28 degrees of latitude are between the two squares. Palm trees vs. fir trees.

But also, the best player in the world, Connor McDavid, who has spent the past nine years out of the limelight, on the tundra, and who, at 27, finally finds himself in a position to seize a chance and drink the mud of the big cup. Nobody wants to be the best player in history who never won the Stanley Cup. 27 years is the peak of development of a professional athlete. Sidney Crosby won his first Cup at the age of 21. Gretzky had 23 years, Lemieux 25 years. After that, the window begins to close…

So I found my hero. A certain logic of greatness had to be respected. Just as I had passionately hoped that, in Qatar in 2022, Messi could defeat the Blues to join Maradona in legend, I now wanted McDavid to become, without question, the best of all time.

But venturing into the playoffs with a shaky goaltender in front of the net is never a good idea for serious, ambitious players in Stanley. Saturday night, the Oilers allowed the first pass directed at them, and then the first shot of the second half. It hurts your average efficiency. He just allowed two goals on five shots…

He made up for it two days later by keeping his team in the game until the third period, but the Oilers' big defender, far from taking advantage, found another way to lose by shooting on goal, during those 40 minutes of play, a grand total of seven times!

I watched the puck drift through the Albertans' power play, passing the puck back and forth, looking for a crack in the wall of the Red Jackets in front of them and waiting for the opportunity to take the perfect shot worthy of being among the best. The week and the magician trainer The living room I was stomping on his chair and he groaned: Go ahead, shoot, oh my god! From what angle, whether it's a puck or a ball in traffic, we don't care: As soon as you see a piece of Bobrovsky, stop thinking and shoot me. demon in this direction…

During those two games, I understood why Connor McDavid was the best player on the planet, but also why the Oilers likely won't bring the Cup back to Canada this year. Every time he touches the puck, extraordinary things happen: flights, feints, flips, brakes, laser passes. And this speed of penetration into the opposite area, this quiet weaving through the rows of sticks. He had an artist's palette.

At the same time, in the rare space he opened with his skis, he spun in circles. The Panthers' double coverage left him fluttering for a moment before closing in on him. From a scenic point of view, the form of protective defense exercised by these Panthers creates a mysterious, claustrophobic optical illusion that “Senator” Serge Savard, in an interview with Jean-Charles Lajoie, described as follows: “There is no longer any space on the skates on the rink. It is like a match Rugby…”

At the time when Serge the Great was playing, defense in hockey consisted of placing two strong men on the blue line, who were sometimes allowed to move forward to support the attack. In attack, the Lafleurs of this world had wings and Cournoyer was not nicknamed the 'Roadrunner' for nothing. Each team can also rely on a trio that plays a more defensive game. However, among the Panthers, the best defensive forward in the league plays on the first line. In fact, their philosophy is to form a back five ready to transform into strikers whenever opportunities arise.

That's why the Stanley Cup, once again this year, will remain in the hands of a team whose fans cheer for it.” United States of America! United States of America! » During the national anthem. But it's also, in a way, because the wave pool at Edmonton's largest mall can't compete with Miami Beach. As Regan Tremblay wisely pointed out at the beginning of June, the fact that the Florida-based club finds itself in the Cup Final for the fifth year in a row may not be a mere coincidence. By the way, how do you put together a “built for the playoffs” team?

Could it have something to do with the fact that nine out of ten people like heat, but hate taxes? Rich hockey agents don't think otherwise. For them, landing on the edge of the North Pole under a “socialist” system is no less tempting than pushing horse droppings across a frozen pond with a twisted branch. In Gary “Call me Gary” Bettman's NHL, we leave the folklore to the Canadians and keep the millions.

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