Oilers' Connor McDavid Cements Legacy with Heroic Playoff Assist

Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid has already cemented himself as the best hockey player in the game today. He reminded everyone on Friday night in Game 2 he is also a very prolific passer with an assist on a Leon Draitsaitl goal that people are still talking about.

Jeff Jackson, his former agent and now president of the Oilers, was amazed at what the Canadian superstar did on that assist.

“I jumped up and was like, ‘What’d he just do?’” Jackson said to NHL.com.

“I don’t know if there’s a harder play in hockey than to do what he just did,” teammate Mattias Ekholm said.

The stage was set. The was tied in the first period and Edmonton was on a power play. McDavid made one guy miss and then toe dragged past another Panthers defender. He then passes from left to right to forward Leon Draisaitl, who one-times the puck into the net, giving the Oilers a 3-2 lead at 12:37.

The Oilers radio play-by-play voice, Jack Michaels, said it is difficult to get the words out of his mouth fast enough to keep up with the speedy and crafty McDavid.

“I’ve learned over the years, less is more,” Michaels said. “If you try to cram some sort of superlative word that you think might be appropriate, you’re still not doing the moment justice, so better to get the particulars and then recreate -- or attempt to recreate.”

Trying to recreate the play in slow motion is very hard to do. It happened so fast it looked like a blur,

McDavid took a pass from Draisaitl on top of the left circle. The puck is rolling on the ice and he gives Aleksander Barkov a head fake the Selke Trophy winner won't soon forget. The Selke Trophy was awarded to Barkov as the NHL’s best defensive forward this season, It was his third time winning the award,

Barkov went one way, McDavid went the other and then cut behind him into the left circle. Barkov is spinning around, and the puck is still rolling. Aaron Ekblad, a 6-foot-4 veteran defenseman, reaches out with his long stick, and McDavid reaches into his bag of tricks.

McDavid dragged the puck around Ekblad’s stick, gets the puck to sit flat on the ice and then slipped it right between Ekblad and Barkov to the left hash.

McDavid moved the puck in between Panthers center Anton Lundell and defenseman Gustav Forsling, It somehow got to Draisaitl’s stick blade low in the right circle. Draisaitl slammed it into an open net as Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky lunges across, sticks out his glove in vain and fell flat on his stomach.

Jackson likes to say the GPS inside McDavid's brain works harder and faster than anyone elses.

“The pass is, like, through the other guy but right on the tape in the exact spot where Leon can one-time it,” Jackson said. “It’s his ability to assess at the end of the day, because it’s all one motion. He’s pulling it, he’s seeing what’s going on with Leon, he’s seeing the defender, where that defender’s stick is, and just from a timing perspective, it’s all got to be perfect."

“I don’t know how he does it. He just has a sensory thing, and it’s all timing.”