BOSTON — Don’t call it a passing of the torch. At least not around Connor McDavid.
“I think you’re gonna see Sid in 12 months,” said No. 97, who put himself into the same echelon as No. 87 on Thursday night in Boston. “I don’t think you see a passing of any torch. He had a great tournament, he’s a big part of our group, and I think you’ll see him in a year’s time.”
That much is true. Sidney Crosby, barring injury or some kind of freak event, almost certainly will wear the “C” again for Team Canada in Milan, just as he did for the past 10 days.
But it’s hard to get more poetic than things got for Canada at 8:18 of overtime Thursday night.
Crosby had the golden goal in the 2010 Olympics, the single moment that defined a generation of Canadian hockey.
McDavid now has the wrist shot he ripped from the slot Thursday to give Canada a 3-2 win in the 4 Nations Face-Off final against Team USA.
“Just relief, really,” McDavid said, describing his feelings. “Just excited for our group. Honestly, everybody was so dug in. Starts months and months and months ago with management going and picking the team, coaching staff coming together and obviously players doing what we do. It’s been a big production this week to have it all come together.”
It’s not the Olympics, though the NHL’s return to best-on-best will give him the chance to author something memorable in Italy next February. But Crosby’s goal did not come at a time of high tension between the United States and Canada, and it did not follow 11 years without a true best-on-best competition.
McDavid came up just short of what would have been the greatest hockey feat in memory last summer when the Oilers fell short from rallying down 3-0 in the Cup Final, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy after losing Game 7 and sitting in the Edmonton dressing room too distraught to collect it.
Between World Juniors and World Championships, McDavid had won three gold medals playing for Team Canada in the past, but last summer was his only shot at the Stanley Cup, and he’d never had the chance to play in best-on-best competition for his country.
Few players were more vocal about wanting the return of best-on-best, and it almost doesn’t matter what McDavid did up until the game-winner — nobody is going home from Boston having done more to boost his legacy.
“It means everything,” he said. “I think you saw everybody lay it all on the line. The Tkachuk bros were grinding through things, grinding through something. Everybody — [Thomas] Harley stepping in again.
“Everybody laid it all out there. And it just means the world to us to find a way to get it done. That’s what we do.”
