Oilers’ McDavid wins Conn Smythe Trophy after Game 7 loss

SUNRISE — The Conn Smythe Trophy was a small consolation for Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid on Monday night.

The superstar forward, crushed after his team fell painfully short in a 2-1 Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers, did not return to the ice to accept the individual award from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

It was the first time since 2003 that a player from the losing team received playoff MVP honors. Speaking outside his team’s locker room, a despondent McDavid offered few words when asked for his thoughts.

“It’s an honor to have the name on that trophy,” he said.

McDavid, 27, led all players with 42 points (eight goals, 34 assists) in the playoffs.

Patrick Roy is the only player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy three times. Bobby Orr, Bernie Parent, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby won twice.

After the Oilers lost the first three games of the Finals, McDavid had four points (1-3) in Game 4 and four more points (2-2) in Game 5 to become the first player in Stanley Cup Finals history with four consecutive points . point games.

McDavid’s teammates were eager to trumpet his accomplishments.

“He’s the greatest player to ever play, in my books,” forward Leon Draisaitl said.

“He’s the biggest reason we’re here,” added defender Mattias Ekholm. “He is our leader.”

McDavid broke Gretzky’s record of 31 playoff assists and fell five points short of the Great One’s 47 points in a single postseason.

The six-foot, 194-pound center is the first player to have four different four-point games in a single Stanley Cup playoff run since the Oilers’ glory days in the 1980s.

Gretzky had six four-point games in the 1985 playoffs, while Paul Coffey and Jari Kurri each had four that same year. Mark Messier had four such games during the 1988 playoffs.

McDavid had a career-best 174 points in 101 regular-season and playoff games, the most since Lemieux’s 188 points with Pittsburgh in 1995-96.

“You really can’t say anything,” Ekholm said. “It’s just positive. He’s the best in the world and he showed it on the biggest stage in the game.”

This is the fourth consecutive season that McDavid has led the NHL in points in the regular season and playoffs. It is the longest such streak since Gretzky topped the list in nine consecutive campaigns from 1979-80 (when he was tied with Marcel Dionne) through 1987-88.

“(McDavid) is our leader, he’s our best player and obviously everybody wanted to win for the team and obviously we’d like to do it (for) him, the captain of our team,” said the head coach of Oilers, Kris Knoblauch.

“I can’t say enough about what he brings: the leadership and what he does on the ice.”

Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the 2003 Anaheim Mighty Ducks was the last player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy but not the Stanley Cup.

The others are Roger Crozier (Detroit Red Wings, 1966), Glenn Hall (St. Louis Blues, 1968), Reggie Leach (Philadelphia Flyers, 1976) and Ron Hextall (Philadelphia Flyers, 1987).

“There’s no player in the world who wants to win a Stanley Cup more than (McDavid),” Draisaitl said. “He does everything right, every day, just to win one day. It’s very hard to be sad and disappointed at the end.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 24, 2024.

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Gregory Strong, Canadian Press