Connor McDavid didn't need a year-end press conference to sum up his thoughts on the Edmonton Oilers' season. He already said so much with the few words he shared following the Game 6 loss to the Anaheim Ducks that saw the reigning two-time Western Conference champions suffer a first-round playoff upset.
If you haven't seen the clip numerous times over by now, a beleaguered McDavid standing in the visitors dressing room of Honda Center said: "We were an average team all year. An average team with high expectations, you're going to be disappointed." And the disappointment hasn't faded upon returning to Edmonton.
"It's only a couple days ago I made those comments. I obviously feel the same way I did a couple days ago," McDavid said. "The organization as a whole has taken a step back, and it starts with me, it starts with Leon (Draisaitl). We all can be better and we all need to be better."
With the first-round ousting, there has been no shortage of speculation as to the level of frustration McDavid is feeling right now. "There's no doubt everybody knows what we're trying to do here in Edmonton, and it's no secret," said McDavid, who will be in his 30s the next time he plays a playoff game. "We're pressing pretty hard, so the patience is obviously worn pretty thin. I want to win, and I want to win here in Edmonton. That's my focus."
Officially, McDavid is heading into the first year of a two-year contract extension he signed on the eve of the regular season opening in October. What the future holds for him and for the Oilers beyond that — or if he even ends up playing out the end of that contract here — he can't say. Or won't say. "I'm not going to get into all that," McDavid said. "The only thing that matters is competing for the big trophy. That's all that matters. And if I feel that's here, then, yeah."
And if he doesn't feel it's in Edmonton, then we can only imagine the answer is also the same. Yeah, he would move on. The captain doesn't always go down with the ship.
In his 11 NHL seasons, McDavid has won every bit of hardware available to only the most elite of offensive players. But the one thing missing is in the blank space at the top of his otherwise immaculate resume next to Number of Stanley Cups: __.
On Saturday, McDavid confirmed what was expected all along, that he was playing hurt since Game 2, when he had his left ankle get caught under the knee of teammate Mattias Ekholm in a mid-ice collision. The extent of the injury was a fractured bone in his foot. "It's not easy, obviously, guys playing through things," McDavid said. "It sucks, really. But everybody does it and we needed to find a way to be better. And we didn't. I didn't. And that sucks."
For someone who has garnered no shortage of the spotlight over his career for being half a step faster than everyone else on the ice, it levelled the playing field and allowed Anaheim's fourth line to keep up and constantly get in his face.
