Connor McDavid is a star player in the NHL, often considered the greatest active professional hockey player. However, he recently opened up about the lowest point in his career: when his team lost against the San Jose Sharks.
After taking down the Los Angeles Kings in the fifth game of their first playoff series 4-3, the Edmonton Oilers will be one of eight teams advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.
"OILERS BEAT THE KINGS 4-3 & MOVE ONTO THE SECOND ROUND AFTER COMPLETING THE SERIES 4-1 💧
The Oilers will now play the winner of the Vancouver Canucks - Nashville Predators series. In that series, the Canucks are up 3-2."
However, not all members of the team spent all their time after the game celebrating. Their captain, Connor McDavid, opened up on what he felt was not only his lowest point this season but of his entire career. According to the star player, he never felt as low as he did after the team lost to the San Jose Sharks on November 9t 2023, putting them at the bottom of the league.
"McDavid Calls Losing to Sharks This Season 'Low Point' of His Career"
"Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl Edmonton Oilers are now tied with Filip Zadina and the San Jose Sharks for dead last in the NHL.
5 points. 30 days into the season."
However, McDavid moved beyond this moment of losing to an objectively inferior team. Instead of personally dwelling on this terrible loss, this captain rallied his team and encouraged them to get themselves back into gear.
"That was a low point, I would say even in my career, it felt like. We had a meeting the next day and the meeting was, ‘There's nowhere else to go. We're last.' That was a tough realization, you know? But at the end of the day, it was a meeting that let guys let some things go that we were holding onto. This need, to have a great year and whatever, all of a sudden it just shifted to, ‘Let's get ourselves back in it.' A lot of guys were looking at, ‘We want to win the division.' ‘We want to be first.' ‘We want to do all this.' But that forced us to just say, ‘Let's win the next game. Let's win the next two. Let's have a good week.' I thought it was a good thing for our group. I think the start of the season really forced us to be short-sighted.»
While we cannot be certain that their loss to the San Jose Sharks kicked the team back into gear, it is undeniable the team has made one of the greatest comebacks in the NHL. They are now set to play against the Canucks in the second round of the playoffs. Hopefully for the Oilers, McDavid can think back to that loss and remind himself to give Vancouver everything he's got.
Source - The Athletic
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