4 Ways Connor McDavid and the Oilers Finally Got over the Hump to Stanley Cup Final

Well, folks, for the first time in the Connor McDavid Era, the Edmonton Oilers are headed to the Stanley Cup Final.

McDavid set the tone with a power-play goal in the first five minutes as the Oilers beat the Stars 2-1 in Game 6 of the Western Conference final. Despite McDavid’s glory, the win was a result of the same full-team effort that has made the difference all season for the Oilers.

A heck of a defensive performance, a McDavid opener, a Zach Hyman insurance goal, and a functional power play lifted the Oilers above the Stars with only 10 shots on goal.

Now, Edmonton will face the Florida Panthers as they seek their sixth franchise Stanley Cup. Should they defeat the Panthers, they’ll become the first Canadian team to hoist the Stanley Cup since Montreal in 1993.

Before we start fixating on the many storylines to come in the geographically furthest Cup Final in NHL history, we’ve got to tip our hats to the season that’s been for the Oilers, who really might win a Cup in the McDavid era now.

If we’ve learned anything from the Edmonton Oilers this decade. In that case, we’ve learned once and for all that it’s impossible to win in the contemporary NHL without a complete team, even if you’ve got the best player in the world and, at times, the second-best player in the world.

The Oilers were different this year, and maybe it took a gut check when McDavid was injured early in the season and the team around him decided to step up. They went from a league-worst 2-9-1 start to the season to the best points percentage (.703) after head coach Kris Knoblauch was hired mid-November.

“Everybody’s buying in. Everybody’s doing a lot of good things, and we’re getting goaltending,” McDavid told TNT postgame. “It wasn’t the prettiest of closeouts tonight, but Stu closed it off, our back end blocked so many shots.”

The top four playoff scorers in the NHL right now? McDavid with five goals and 31 points in 18 games. Leon Draisaitl with 10 goals and 28 points in 18 games. Evan Bouchard with six goals and 27 points in 18 games. The longest-suffering Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with six goals and 20 points in 18 games. Leading goal-scorer in the playoffs? Zach Hyman, has 14 goals in 18 games.

Meanwhile, on defense, Edmonton was perfect on the penalty kill in the Western Conference Final (more on that later), Stuart Skinner held his own in net, Darnell Nurse is turning things around, and Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm have been revelations.

Bouchard is the modern, coveted, and elusive No. 1 defenseman who has been sorely missing from the Oilers’ Cup dreams in the McDavid era. His sixth multi-assist game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs made him the seventh defenseman in NHL history to record as many in a single postseason. In Game 6, he also became the sixth defenseman in NHL history to record 20 assists in a postseason.

Much of the focus will be on the Oilers’ power play finally exploding right when it needed to in Games 5 and 6 — and rightfully so. But perhaps even more lethal against a team like the Stars was Edmonton’s ridiculously consistent penalty kill.

The Oilers have killed an astonishing 46 of 49 penalties this entire postseason, and they were a perfect 14-for-14 against the Stars, scoring more shorthanded goals than the Stars did power-play goals (0).

Much like the best players driving the bus and being the best players, the power play finally showed up exactly when needed in Game 5, twice via Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Once it started it wouldn’t stop, with both goals in Game 6 coming on the man advantage.

Special teams have been deciding the close calls in a postseason full of one-goal games (72 to be precise, tied for second-most in a postseason in NHL history). No problem for the Oilers, it seems.

Is Stuart Skinner the best goalie in the league? No, and no one is kidding themselves about that. Through Game 3 of Round 2, he had a .877 save percentage and a 3.22 goals against average, so he got benched for a few games.

But the decision to bring him back and the ensuing turnaround has been essential to the team’s success in these ridiculously close games. Call Skinner what you want, McDavid is going with “elite.”

“I think he learned a lot from last year’s playoffs, and he’s putting it to good use,” McDavid told TNT postgame. “A lot of people doubt him, a lot of people say things about him. He’s an elite goaltender, he really is. He was so good for us the whole series. He gave us a chance every single night. Tonight, he absolutely stole one for us, really can’t say enough good things about him.”

The Oilers were outshot 35-10 in Game 6, and out-Corsi’d a whopping 73.75 percent. The math checks out considering both Oilers goals were on the man advantage, but the craziest part? Skinner held on in the third period in a one-goal game as the Stars were out-Corsi’ing the Oilers 91.67 percent according to NaturalStatTrick.com and fighting for their lives. Through it all, Skinner only allowed one goal, ending with a .971 save percentage. He also only allowed one goal in Game 5.

If we’re seeing a genuine heater emerge, this team feels unbeatable.

What else could we possibly want from McDavid? Well, there’s that one thing, but he’s officially done everything short of The Thing and it makes you appreciate his road to potential GOATness even more.

McDavid enters the Cup Final leading the playoffs in scoring, and adding more accolades to his ever-growing list. He just recorded his sixth series with at least 10 points. The only others with as many 10-point series are Wayne Gretzky (21), Mark Messier (8), Denis Savard (7), and Mario Lemieux (6). He just became the sixth player in NHL history to record multiple 30-point playoff years, following the footsteps of Gretzky, Messier, Jari Kurri, Lemieux, and Nikita Kucherov.

You’ve heard all of the niche stats McDavid has been climbing the ranks in for years now, though, and you’re waiting for the big one. So is he, and he’s making no mistake about it.

There was something uniquely special about that tone-setting goal he scored less than five minutes after puck drop, after arriving at the arena in the same suit for the third consecutive game.

It was a set up and an angle only he could accomplish. It was the first of only 10 Oilers shots all game. It happened on a power play he drew himself. There was no mistake: We were watching one of the GOATS, potentially the GOAT, rise to an occasion that finally means more.