Edmonton— Wayne GretzkyThe statue is one of the first things you see when you approach the front of Rogers Place. The sculpture depicts the NHL’s all-time scoring leader hoisting the Stanley Cup above his head.
Connor McDavid knows it’s there. And most importantly, he knows how important he was and he is the man he portrays for the franchise, the city and the sport.
So for the Edmonton Oilers captain to break one of The Great One’s all-time records is a pretty big deal, even if McDavid himself wants to downplay the achievement.
“It’s not lost on me what he means to the game,” McDavid said of Gretzky. “But that’s not the focus right now.”
No, what it is for McDavid and his teammates is the chance to play one more day, which they earned with an 8-1 victory against the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final. Saturday.
The Oilers still face a daunting task ahead. They trail the Panthers 3-1 and the series will return to Florida for Game 5 on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC). To win the Stanley Cup, the Oilers will have to win four consecutive games, a feat only accomplished in the Cup final by the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
For his part, McDavid cares little that it has only been done once in 82 years. Or about individual brands that he could destroy along the way.
But the fact that he surpassed Gretzky for most assists in a single postseason with 32, thanks to a four-point game (one goal, three assists), demonstrated his leadership skills on a night when his team was on the brink of the abyss.