Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Wyshynski posits a superb profile of Connor McDavid

10/16/2015 at 10:47am EDT

From Yahoo Sports' Greg Wyshynski:

[Connor] McDavid hates losing.

Hates it. Which is a problem when you’re drafted to a team that, well, loses a lot.

They lost again on opening night in front of all those fans in all those McDavid jerseys, 4-2 to the St. Louis Blues. The power play sucked, going 0-for-5, to the point where coach Todd McLellan blamed it for the loss. McDavid played nearly five minutes with the man advantage, more than any forward outside of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but ended the game with no shots on goal and only three shot attempts.

“It’s obviously disappointing. We needed it to come up big tonight, and it didn’t again, so it’s something we gotta work on,” said McDavid after the game.

His voice barely rose from a whisper in the Oilers’ locker room, and he wore the disappointment on his face. The fans came to see the Connor McDavid Show, and it was postponed: no points, no shots and a game-worst minus-3.

His coach pulled as many positives as he could.

“Against a heavy, strong, well-prepared defensive team, I saw him skating through the neutral zone with more pace and speed, creating some opportunities. Unfortunately for us, that line was on the ice for some goals against,” said McLellan. “He’s getting better every night. I don’t know how much pressure he’s feeling. I think I do. But I don’t really know how much he’s carrying with him. I’m sure that he feels that a large chunk of our 0-4 record falls on his shoulders.”

Continued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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