Connor McDavid should get the Conn Smythe no matter what

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"Drag 'em back to Alberta" was Connor McDavid's oft-quoted mission statement for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final last night in Florida. He made it happen, scoring two goals — including the game-clinching empty netter — and assisting on two others in the Oilers' series-extending 5-3 win.

The Panthers hoped to hoist the Cup on home ice. Instead, McDavid's second consecutive four-point performance with his team facing elimination forced his opponents to take the 4,000-km plane ride back to the NHL's northernmost outpost for Game 6 on Friday night. Think the Edmonton fans will be fired up for that one?

In terms of a superstar hockey player backing up his words, "Drag 'em back to Alberta" followed by a four-point night is maybe not quite on the level of Mark Messier's hat trick and assist after promising the Rangers would survive their must-win Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference final against New Jersey. But give it time. Messier's so-called guarantee (he didn't actually say the word) became legend when the Rangers went on to win Game 7 of that series and then capture their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. If McDavid and the Oilers become the first team since the 1942 Maple Leafs to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win the Cup final, you'll be seeing "Drag 'em back to Alberta" t-shirts in oil country for years to come (someone already made a country song out of it, by the way).

Cool catchphrases aside, McDavid's performance in these playoffs is already one for the ages. His three assists in Edmonton's 8-1 victory in Game 4 broke Wayne Gretzky's long-standing record of 31 assists