McDavid and Oilers Set to Break US Stanley Cup Drought: The Heat is On

Dubbed “The Great One,” Wayne Gretzky gave the Great White North a sense of great pride for much of the 1980s.

But 31 years without a Stanley Cup for a Canadian team has begun to grate on fans in the country where it is the national sport.

It was Gretzky’s Kings who last allowed Canada to capture the big prize when Los Angeles lost to the Montreal Canadiens in five games in 1993. And since then, even the Kings have won two Cups during this decades-long Canada freeze-out.

No Cup for Canada. It’s now the talk of the National Hockey League (NHL) and beyond.

That’s in part because the country has another chance to win one. And it’s Gretzky’s first team, the Edmonton Oilers, featuring ice-breaker Connor McDavid—pretty much the hottest thing on ice since Gretzky—who can help save Canadian hopes from melting away yet again.

McDavid, whose popular nicknames include “McJesus,” “Connor McHockey,” and “The Next One,” helped set up a guaranteed TV ratings jackpot in the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers when he scored in a series-clinching Game 6 victory over the Dallas Stars on June 2 in the Western Conference final.

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The matchup guarantees high-pressure games and movie-worthy drama, with McDavid in his first Final, all of Canada reportedly on the side of the Oilers. Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch, who took over on the bench for the fired Jay Woodcroft early in the season when the Oilers stumbled out of the gate, said the drive for the Cup is essentially something Canada can share with McDavid and Co.

“I think with the team, it’s all about accomplishing something for the guys in the room,” Knoblauch said during media availability on Tuesday when asked about the pressure to win it for Canada.

“I know they feel very close,” he said about his players. “They’re tightly knit, and they’ve been through a lot of ups and downs. Especially our veterans—like Connor and Leon [Draisaitl], and Ryan [Nugent-Hopkins] Darnell [Nurse] —have been through this for quite a long time.

“They want to win for each other, I think that’s the biggest thing. And the other part of it is wanting to win for the city. Obviously, you saw the support after Game 6 against Dallas and that’s exciting.

“They want to continue that because they felt the support and they want to return that favor. And now, for the rest of Canada, yeah, they can jump on board, too. All the support we can get is great, but I think the biggest thing is wanting to win it for each other in that room,” Knoblauch said.

Canadian Corey Perry, a midseason addition for Edmonton, also tried to stick a pin in the ever-expanding “need to win it for Canada” bubble.

“We’re not putting any extra pressure on [ourselves] to end this drought of no Cup in Canada, we’re just focusing on ourselves and what we have to do and what’s at stake,” Perry said.

“The drought’s been out there, it’s been talked about and we all know about it, so it doesn’t need to be said anymore, it’s just a matter of what we have to do.”

But Gretzky, who began his career with the Oilers, said in the postgame broadcast after Edmonton eliminated Dallas that all of Canada was behind the Oilers to finally raise the Cup. The Hall of Famer quipped that Edmonton’s Alberta rival, the Calgary Flames, would even warm up to the idea of pulling for the Oilers.

McDavid and Draisaitl, from Germany, were asked immediately after Game 6 about having the weight of the country on their shoulders during the Final, the first for the Oilers since 2006.

When a reporter told the pair in the postgame press conference that even residents of Ottawa were behind them and then asked about the additional pressure that brings, McDavid shrugged it off in a hurry.

“No,” he said bluntly, followed by a chuckle. “There’s always pressure in the Stanley Cup Final, no matter where your team’s from.

“So, obviously we’re a Canadian team and we’ve got great Canadian fans and it feels good to maybe unite the country a little and have something to bring people together. You know, that’s what sports is all about, is bringing people together and hopefully we’re doing that for people across the country.”

McDavid, a native of Ontario, Canada, dropped jaws everywhere with his opening power-play goal in the finale of the conference final in Edmonton. McDavid also set up Zach Hyman for another power-play marker that was different as the Oilers knocked off the favored Stars 2-1.

McDavid’s goal was spectacular as he weaved past defenders and flipped the puck past Jake Oettinger, one of the top goaltenders in the NHL. But now comes the hardest part as he looks to navigate his club, from which much is expected, through another hotbed of hockey in Florida.

The trend has been for teams from warm-weather climates to dominate in the Final. The team with the hottest venue in the NHL, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, won the Cup last season, and Tampa Bay, known more for warmth and places to relax, has seen its Lightning squad win three times since the last club from Canada carried the Cup around the ice in triumph.

Edmonton takes the ice for Game 1 on Saturday in Sunrise, Florida, and the heat is on.