Connor McDavid may be a generational player, but he isn't letting the pressure of winning the Stanley Cup weigh on him.
"If you think about (cementing a legacy) that way, you'd probably be pretty crippled in how you prepare or how you play," McDavid said Monday. "It's a big game, everybody knows that. I know that. It's fun hockey, it's a fun series to be a part of."
McDavid has tallied seven goals and 26 assists during the Oilers' postseason run, with seven points in the Stanley Cup Final. The 28-year-old has almost every major NHL award in his trophy case - except a Stanley Cup.
The Oilers captain returns to the finals in a rematch of last year's series against the Florida Panthers. The Oilers were down 3-0 last spring before rattling off three straight wins to force a Game 7. McDavid became the sixth player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy - awarded to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs - as a member of the losing team.
"(McDavid's) desperate to win a Cup, and so are we," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said Monday. "He's obviously a talent like nobody else in the league. It's so hard to shut him down - I don't think you can shut him down. You can just try to limit as much as you can."
The Oilers captain is also adamant that the team hasn't reached its full potential over the course of the Stanley Cup Final.
"For whatever reason, our group doesn't like to make it easy on ourselves and (we've) put ourselves in another difficult spot, but it's our job to work our way out of it," McDavid said. "Everyone has another level, myself included."
The Oilers look to force another Game 7 when they face the Panthers on Tuesday.
