Connor McDavid receives both positive and negative publicity

Even when you’re the best hockey player in the world, you have to accept that not everything written or said about you is going to be positive. Connor McDavid is well aware of this, but there must still be times when it gets extremely frustrating, particularly coming from an uninformed individual or individuals. (And yes, we’re particularly referring to the Miami Herald‘s Greg Cote recently calling him overrated.)

At the same time, when you’re as excellent at your craft as McDavid is, you can also expect more than your fair share of praise. Along these lines, the last couple of days have seen the three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner receive both positive and negative publicity.

Starting with the positive, McDavid was named the Best NHL Player at ESPN‘s ESPYS on Thursday night. To win the award, he finished ahead of an impressive list including Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov and Auston Matthews.

Yes, the award is not exactly at the top of the pile when it comes to prestige, but it still counts for something for the Oilers superstar. As per the team’s official site, it’s the third straight year he’s won the award, while he was also named a finalist in the Best Athlete, Men’s Sports category.

Certainly you can appreciate why McDavid would win the award, given everything he achieved this past season. This including becoming just the fourth player in NHL history to reach 100 assists in a season, albeit swiftly followed by Kucherov.

The seven-time All-Star also took the Oilers all the way to game seven of the Stanley Cup Final and won the Conn Smythe Trophy. Which is a nice segue to the negative publicity he has received in the last couple of days.

McDavid has once more been told he basically should have accepted the Conn Smythe Tropy on the ice, despite having just lost the ultimate prize in heartbreaking fashion. And this time the comments were made by someone who experienced the same situation, right down to losing in seven games.

The player in mind is Jean-Sébastien Giguère, who at the time was goalie for the Anaheim Ducks, with them losing out on the Stanley Cup to the New Jersey Devils. In his mind, McDavid should have done the same as him, and gone out onto the ice to accept the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Giguère made his comments while appearing on the Leafs Nation‘s podcast, called Leafs Morning Take. Although this shouldn’t be taken as outright criticising McDavid and having a go at him.

Instead, the 47-year-old providing a very objective, cerebral and refreshing presentation of his thoughts. Giving due credit to Hockey Feed‘s Trevor Connors, he said: “I feel for Connor you know. He played so well and deserved that trophy. In my mind, I do think that he should have gone and accepted the trophy. At the end of the day, I think the game is always bigger than the individual, you know and this is a major trophy for the NHL.”

In fairness, Giguère makes a good point. He then went on to add: “It’s something, you know, it would have showed kids I guess that winning or losing, you still present yourself the right away and accept your fate. Easier said than done, I get it, you know I think he’s an amazing player, he’s an amazing ambassador for the game. So, it’s hard to imagine what was going through his mind. I know what it was like. I still would have taken the picture and leave, but it’s not easy for sure. You know, it would have shown great respect to the game to just show up and take the picture. That’s my personal opinion. I could be wrong.”

It really is tough (impossible) to be critical of how the 2009 NHL All-Star laid out his thoughts. We still stand by our opinion that the criticism McDavid received from the general masses was ridiculous, but significant credit to the mature way Giguère presented his case.

Of final note, Giguère did go on to eventually win the Stanley Cup with the Ducks, when they beat the Ottawa Senators in 2006-07. McDavid would undoubtedly be happy with the same outcome, ‘sacrificing’ the Conn Smythe in exchange for hoisting the Holy Grail of hockey.