Knoblauch has seen McDavid construct more than a few of those. As McDavid’s coach in Erie of the Ontario Hockey League from 2012-2015, he saw the then-teenager rise to the occasion over and over again when it mattered most, never more than during a 2015 playoff series against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, the top-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League.
The Greyhounds came into the series with four NHL first-round picks on their roster including forward Nick Ritchie and defenseman Darnell Nurse, now McDavid’s teammate with the Oilers. They had lost just three of their previous 38 games, regular and postseason combined. No matter. McDavid lit them up for 19 points in a matchup the Otters won in six games, 4-2.
To this day, Knoblauch remains amazed by McDavid’s performance.
“We’d heard going in that this Soo team was the best in junior hockey in a decade,” Knoblauch recalled. “Well, Connor was phenomenal. I think our team as a whole played well. But we wouldn’t have had a chance if it wasn’t for what Connor did. I think he set a series record for points, and he was all that.
“In my career, no matter the league, no matter the event, I’ve never seen one player perform as well or dominate like Connor did against the Soo.”
That was then. This is now. Different league. Opponents are men with beards, not teenagers with acne.
Yet, with everything on the line Monday, Stanley Cup dreams in the balance, who has better odds to be a difference-maker a decade later than McDavid?
“No one,” said Sherwood Bassin, former Otters co-owner and a close family friend who McDavid has said was like a second father to him in Erie.
“I’ve known this kid since he was a young teenager. Even back then, he was thinking ahead of ways to win. I can guarantee you he went to bed (Sunday night) thinking of what’s going to happen, thinking the game in his mind, thinking how he’ll get his team over the hurdle, thinking what needs to be done. He’s so competitive, he’s not going to rest until he wins. I’ve been around hundreds of guys who’ve gone on to play in the NHL and I’ve never met anyone like him.
“He’s going to wake up, and hours later, try to implement all the things that went through his mind.”
In the end, will it work?
“Not necessarily,” Bassin said. “Like I said, there are no guarantees.”
He paused.
“But I can tell you this,” he said. “There will be no one on that ice who’ll be capable of changing the outcome of a game with one of those ‘wow’ moments like he can. The facts are there. He’s already proven that.
“No one.”
