Where has this been all series?
It only took four games, but the Edmonton Oilers‘ dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl finally broke some dry spells on Saturday. McDavid his first goal of the series and Draisaitl got his first Stanley Cup Final point with an assist.
Questions about when the two would show up with the lights at their brightest were aplenty coming into Game 4 against the Florida Panthers as their two droughts contributed in a big way to the Oilers’ overall lack of offence through the first three games.
As a whole, Edmonton had scored only four goals through the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final. They doubled that number at 1:13 of the second period in Game 4. With their backs firmly against the wall down 3-0, the duo delivered.
Draisaitl has always been one to shine under pressure, with the German sharpshooter netting 16 points in 10 elimination games over his career. He picked up his 17th point off a sweet feed to Dylan Holloway for the Oilers’ third goal of the game.
He added another assist in the second period on the power play, rocketing a shot off the crossbar from his signature tight angle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins eventually tapping it in on the goal-line.
The 28-year-old had been virtually invisible so far in the Stanley Cup Finals, finishing without any points on nine shots on goal.
McDavid, meanwhile, has 12 points in nine elimination games over his career but refused to go down without a fight on Saturday, netting the fourth goal of the game, wiring a wrister top shelf on the rush.
He also picked up an assist on Darnell Nurse’s goal four minutes later to bring his point total in this post-season to 38, breaking Evgeni Malkin’s record for the most in a single playoff run over the last 30 years and putting him in a tie with Wayne Gretzky for the fifth-most all-time.
Perhaps more notably though, he wound up grabbing two more assists on the night, bringing his post-season total to 32 and breaking Gretzky’s record for the most helpers over the course of a run.
His 20 points in games following a loss tied Doug Gilmour’s 1993 run for the most in a post-season as well, per Sportsnet Stats.
