Slightly more than a day removed from one of the more gripping Stanley Cup Final series of the past two decades, it’s clear the real winner was the NHL and hockey fans.
Which is to take nothing away from the Florida Panthers. Lord Stanley’s cherished chalice is being loaned to them, and deservedly so. Rare is the franchise that can endure the most gutting of losses, as the Panthers did in the Final last season, only to return and rise to the rank of champion. These Panthers joined Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers (1984) and Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins (2009) in pulling off that feat in the modern era.
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Historic company, indeed.
But the NHL, which badly needed a big win after spending most of this decade fending off public-relations wounds and wandering through the wilderness that was those weird COVID-altered seasons, comes out truly on top.
The Panthers were a neat story a year ago, a No. 8 seed that gritted its way to the Final. Before that run, they were a non-factor.
Not anymore.
The Panthers don’t play games in Miami but they are South Florida’s hockey club. And this Cup win should forever bond the Panthers with the United States’ No. 18 television market. That’s a huge win for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, especially after he had to abandon the No. 11 market, Phoenix, when the Coyotes were transferred to Salt Lake City before these playoffs.
The Panthers have finally arrived after 30 seasons, which is good business for the NHL.
So, too, is the league’s best player, Connor McDavid, showing up and showing out on the Cup Final stage in his ninth season. The wait for McDavid — a true generational player among the ranks of Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Alex Ovechkin and Crosby — felt like forever to hockey fans.
He’s been the best for a while, but he’s largely gone unnoticed by casual sports fans. That is partly because he plays in Edmonton. The city’s hockey fans are intense and smart, but their passion doesn’t do anything for the casual American sports audience. That says more about the NHL’s inability to get anywhere close to the popularity of the NFL, NBA, MLB and college football in the U.S. than it does the Oilers or their rabid fans.
But perception is reality, and the Oilers, even with McDavid, only recently became a team U.S. television rights holders Turner Sports and ESPN began to feature prominently.
McDavid gave those broadcasters no choice over the past two months. He not only carried the Oilers to the Cup Final, but he did it breathtakingly. He provided an individual postseason for the ages.
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There’s no shame in finishing behind Gretzky and Lemieux in single-postseason scoring, as McDavid did with his 42 points. If anything, his dazzling display of dominance emboldened the case for being among the all-time greats.
His Conn Smythe win was justifiable because that trophy is for the most valuable player of the playoffs. Sure, he failed to score a goal in any of the Oilers’ four Final losses, but … hey, there is a redemption arc in that, too. This postseason belonged to him almost as much as the Panthers — and there is tangible value in him falling short of the ultimate prize.
His Oilers will be on U.S. television more than ever next season. His chase for the Cup is more compelling than it was two days ago because we all watched him reach rarefied air but be denied the trophy he covets most.
If this were professional wrestling and scripted, McDavid coming so close only to have the Cup yanked from him in a tight Game 7 would be Part 1 of a two-part story. Part 2 would end, appropriately a year later, with his legacy-cementing triumph.
Most of the all-time greats don’t win the Cup in their first opportunity. Few have waited as long as McDavid.
He isn’t Crosby. Just as Crosby wasn’t Lemieux and Lemieux wasn’t Gretzky. But those four men are the faces of the NHL for casual fans over the last four decades. Only Lemieux waited anywhere near as long as McDavid to win the Cup. Like McDavid, Gretzky and Crosby had to work through the pain of losing in a Final before getting their hands on the greatest trophy in team sports.
The parallel that can be drawn between Crosby and McDavid is that Crosby’s seemingly foregone conclusion of a Cup win was made all the more memorable because we watched him lose in the Final. Had Crosby’s Penguins beat the Red Wings in 2008, he probably would have been less relatable to diehard and casual fans.
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Anointed by Gretzky as “The Next One,” Crosby scored 100 points as a heralded rookie and won the Hart and Art Ross trophies as a sophom*ore. A Cup win in his third season would have been over the top.
Losing in the Cup final made him a sympathetic figure outside of Pittsburgh. Other than a few places — Philadelphia, Washington and Detroit among them — the public was behind Crosby and the Penguins when they returned to the Final in 2009 for a rematch with the Red Wings. He was the fresh face of hockey, but we’d seen him wrecked by watching the Red Wings skate around his home rink 12 months prior.
A sympathetic superstar is great for business, especially for a league that often lacks positive attention, or at least something that grips non-hockey fans.
The breakthrough season was not easy for Crosby and his Penguins, who couldn’t sustain a strong start. Their coach was fired a day after Valentine’s Day. They trailed 2-0 in playoff series against the Capitals and Red Wings, and he was injured in Game 7 of the Final in Detroit.
It was a lot.
It became part of an incredible hero’s quest when Bettman handed him the Cup at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009. Everything that happened for Crosby afterward grew his legend and earned him a seat at the GOAT table that featured Gretzky, Lemieux, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe.
McDavid, the most gifted hockey player since Lemieux, has already done enough to get a seat near where the greatest of great dine. He deserves to eat at the head table, too, but needs to win the Cup to claim his seat — just like Ovechkin did.
If anything, it’s Ovechkin, not Crosby, who should have come to mind when watching McDavid’s Oilers come one win shy of hockey immortality on Monday night.
Ovechkin’s Cup quest, one his coach said would validate his place in hockey history, was as lengthy as it was demoralizing. His best Capitals teams kept running into Crosby’s Penguins, and he didn’t even reach the Final until his 13th season.
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He made the most of that opportunity. Ovechkin’s long-awaited Cup win remains unforgettable, and it was enough to silence critics who harped on him being a scorer but not a winner.
Along the way, he too became a sympathetic figure we wanted to see have his moment. Whereas we had always watched Ovechkin because of his mesmerizing talent, we became invested because we wanted to see a generational talent successfully end his epic Cup quest.
Like Gretzky and Crosby, McDavid was foiled in his first Final. Like Lemieux and Ovechkin, McDavid is enduring the torture of waiting for his silvery moment.
Once he wins the Cup, McDavid will become a bit less interesting because he goes from present-day hockey god to one of the all-time greats.
Fair? Not really. But we tend to move on quickly to what’s next.
McDavid occupies a unique position at this point in his career. He’s what’s now and what’s next. He’s a marketing bonanza — if the NHL can figure out how to capitalize on his newfound appeal.
His pain was palpable Monday night. He’s never seemed more human. He’s never been easier to root for than after that loss.
The Panthers possess the Cup, and South Florida should be a viable hockey market for a long time. McDavid’s greatness was revealed for all to witness, but it wasn’t enough to complete his journey. That was the best result for the league going forward.
If McDavid’s journey hasn’t hooked you at this point, nothing will.
As many Cup winners have said, they remember the journey more than the result. We’re no different.
(Photo of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
Rob Rossi is senior writer for The Athletic NHL based in Pittsburgh. He was previously lead columnist at the Tribune-Review, for which he also served as lead beat reporter on the Penguins and Pirates. He has won awards for his columns and investigative stories on concussion protocol and athletes’ charities, and he is working on a biography of Evgeni Malkin. Follow Rob on Twitter @Real_RobRossi
