from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

“You look at any team that’s won, and it starts with a disappointment. We’ll be back.” — Connor McDavid, in 2017

EDMONTON — The irony of that quote is, five years later, the Edmonton Oilers have not yet found their way out of the disappointment business. But at the same time, they ARE back.

Back to another Game 7, like that 2-1, Game 7 second-round loss in Anaheim that left a 20-year-old McDavid so bullish on his team’s immediate future, as impossibly rosy as it must have seemed that day.

“Come next season,” McDavid promised that night, “we’ll find ourselves in a similar spot. And we’ll be able to look back on this, feel that disappointment, and know ... how much that sucked.”

Well, it’s five years later, but here we are. Better late than never, it may be the only time McDavid ever did anything slow on a hockey rink.

Sometimes life gives us a special moment right out of the blue. Other times, like a Game 7 at home on a Saturday night in May, you see the moment coming – you’re just not sure what kind of moment it will be. What emotion the lasting memory will evoke, elation or dread?

Will it cut like a knife to the heart, or a blood bond between brothers? Either way, it is never to be forgotten.

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