from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

If Connor McDavid has come in waves at opposing defencemen, he has washed over the hockey populace in layers during his ascent to the title of hockey’s best player.

Unlike Sidney Crosby, there have been no Olympic moments, no skating through snowflakes to win a Winter Classic for a hockey phenomenon who has played out his career in hockey’s version of Mystery, Alaska.

McDavid is not just sequestered in Alberta, the northwest corner of the National Hockey League map. McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers reside in northern Alberta, where 82 televised McDavid appearances each punishing winter are 82 reasons not to let the bitter cold and 4 p.m. darkness break our spirit the way he broke Jacob Markstrom’s.

There, in a province that lives and breathes the game, McDavid has long held the crown of hockey’s best player. Because out West, they see Matthews and Marner, Kucherov and Stamkos in a 5 p.m. MT start all winter long.

Then McDavid arrives on our big screens, like the main event after an undercard. With all due respect, for a while now, there has simply been no contest.

Today, as McDavid’s maturation coincides with a stage that a Hockey Night in Canada game in November simply cannot match, McDavid and the hockey world are on a next-level date.

continued