from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun,

So you wonder, as this National Hockey League season goes into the gate, if the Edmonton Oilers can handle the pressure of being considered a Stanley Cup contender for the first time in almost three decades?

You worry about the 103-point team that played 14 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs heading into this season with a target on their backs one year after ending a record-equaling 10 straight seasons out of the playoffs?

Accept the challenge, says Connor McDavid.

Nobody in the NHL has more pressure on him going into this season than the 20-year-old captain who won the Hart, Art Ross and Ted Lindsay awards.

More pressure?

“You want to go out and do it again,” McDavid said of his approach to the Hart.

continued