He was calm and reserved. It was a gaggle of media reserved only for the Cardinals in St. Louis, with Blues players joking “Oh, it must be Connor McDavid night”. Last night I had no problem sleeping, like nothing at all. An off-season of change has paved the way for this moment and it is all centered around Connor McDavid.
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With Edmonton opening their 2015-16 schedule on a three-game road trip and playing five of the first six away from Rexall Place, it will be crucial for this group to get off to a better start this time around.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound McDavid doesn’t have to do anything by himself, of course. “I was just trying to get it out of the zone shorthanded”.
No one knows what to expect tonight.
Either way, we’re not seeing anything that could stick Todd McLellan with a tag that reads complacency.
“I just feel more relaxed today”, McDavid told the Edmonton Journal on Friday at Bridgestone Arena, where the Oilers will play the Nashville Predators on Saturday. VIDEO http://t.co/bidzuVe482 pic.twitter.com/OsOgyzqF8T- Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 8, 2015 Doyle said another interesting statistic to come out of the research was that when it comes to getting an autograph from their favourite player, the majority of Canadian hockey fans on Twitter would prefer a retweet or follow from that player. Along the way, Wayne Gretzky had described him as being “as good as I’ve seen in the last 30 years”, and Sidney Crosby said that when he watched McDavid out on the ice, “he reminded me of myself”. When healthy, Crosby is arguably the best player in hockey.
The pressures resting on McDavid’s shoulders are three fold, McLellan said. It certainly is too early to be concerned about McDavid, especially seeing as his first game wasn’t a complete wash. “I was able to adjust to that”, said Davidson. “It’s new for all of us”. This is a new adventure for everybody involved. That would be presumptuous of making the final roster, something McDavid has been extra careful to not take for granted. The latter trait is likely what will help him survive a debut season where he will be the involuntary sun around which so much attention will orbit. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Fabbri (19 years, 259 days) is the youngest Blues player to score in his National Hockey League debut.
On the April night the Oilers won the NHL draft lottery he was in a small hotel room in Banff with 15 of his gentleman’s league hockey teammates.
Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Yakupov have all been in McDavid’s shoes recently, if not quite on the same scale. Ken Hitchcock did the right thing and kept Fabbri around for this season.
Wearing a Connor McDavid shirt, Kyle Levicki of Edmonton stood in a line inside waiting to get through a security checkpoint. He’s a great guy with a great personality. Lindros’ career was slowed by concussions and his parents clashed with former GM Bob Clarke, who stripped No. 88 of his captaincy and traded him to the Rangers after letting him sit out a full season.
“We’re curious about how we play hockey and how we play a blue-collar, in-your-face, hard-nosed style”, Blues captain David Backes said.
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Either way, it’ll be must-see TV when these two are on the ice together, and could lead to a resurgence of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference if all goes well. “Let’s see how he responds to it”. Eichel will be the number two center for the Sabres and will not have to resurrect the franchise on his own like McDavid.
