We all know Connor McDavid to be one of the greatest NHL players of this era, but he still finds ways to impress.
Such was the case Friday, when the Edmonton Oilers star scored a downright incredible goal to force overtime against the New York Rangers late in the third period.
McDavid skated from the neutral zone in through the center of the attacking end, miraculously weaving through four (!) Blueshirts before beating Alexandar Georgiev.
The Oilers will come to Boston on Thursday, and Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy admitted he enjoyed watching the stunning display of offense.
“Love it (as a fan),” Cassidy told reporters Tuesday. “As a coach, you’re like ‘On the one side how can you not defend the guy better? There’s four of you.’ Then as a coach on the offensive side, it’s ‘Hey that’s a pretty risky (play), use your teammates.’ But you’ve got to love it in the end, right? You just don’t see much of that anymore, those highlight-reel goals — I shouldn’t say that — but that type of goal seemed to be more prevalent 20 years ago when guys were able to get through there. I thought it was great.”
But what would he do as a coach if McDavid pulled off that same play on the Bruins?
“Nothing, nothing,” he chuckled.
He wouldn’t rub his players’ noses in it during the next film session?
“They’re watching it on TV,” Cassidy continued. “They’ve watched it maybe 500 times now, I think that’s punishment enough for not getting the job done.”
The Oilers wound up winning that game 6-5, by the way. Hopefully Gerard Gallant is as forgiving as Cassidy.
