McDavid carries Oilers into second round

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Once in a blue moon, there are otherworldly performances in the National Hockey League. We expect players the calibre of Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to perpetually raise that bar. They are simply that talented.

McDavid raised that bar once more in the first round.

In a surprisingly competitive seven-game series against the Los Angeles Kings, McDavid put together one of the best individual performances I can recall. At times it looked like his body had been taken over by a force in the universe – distinctly faster and stronger than everyone else on the ice, with lethal execution to boot.

And this is in the playoffs against a Kings team who exhibited an ability to slow teams down this season, armed with perhaps the NHL’s best shutdown player in Phillip Danault. (As an aside, it’s hard to say enough about how great Danault was both during the regular season and playoffs; Los Angeles finding an elite shutdown defensive forward who suddenly can score 30 goals in a season is remarkable. Colour me impressed!)

Edmonton was the more talented team in this series, but McDavid was the difference. That’s no slight to goaltender Mike Smith, who was – save for a few puck-handling gaffes – strong in net. And players like Evander Kane and Leon Draisaitl (a combined 12 goals) were invaluable.

But McDavid was on another level. He had four goals and 10 assists, played defencemen-level minutes (37 per cent of available ice time), and prevented the Kings from winning any of the minutes when he was on the ice.

Look at the game flow of the series, differentiating between the minutes played by McDavid versus the minutes played by any other Oilers line. This was a very game and lively series until McDavid stepped on the ice, when