By CHRIS JOHNSTON The Athletic
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SUNRISE, Fla. — No one needs to remind Connor McDavid that he may never get another chance like this one.

It is only now, after nine long years of putting up video game numbers, that the best hockey player on the planet even found himself in position to compete for the Stanley Cup.

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And with his Edmonton Oilers returning home in an 0-2 hole to the Florida Panthers, and with McDavid yet to truly make his mark on the Final, he will embark on the long trip north with the weight of a franchise, a city and a country on his back.

“I’m looking forward to people doubting us again,” he said, with a distinct hint of defiance.

So high has McDavid set the bar that we can basically evaluate his series using the trusty old boxcar stats: One assist, and nothing else to show for the 13 pucks he’s fired toward the net — nine of which got through to Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Those include two partial breakaways at potential momentum-shifting moments in the first period of Game 1 and the third period of Game 2, and both times McDavid came up empty.

That needs to change if Edmonton has any chance of winning this series.

In fact, it needs to change just for them to turn this into the compelling best-of-seven we all thought we were going to get.

“They played better than we did,” said Oilers forward Zach Hyman. “We didn’t have as many looks (as Game 1). We weren’t playing with enough pace, they were controlling the play for the majority of the game.

“You’ve got to find a way to score.”

This is officially the stage of the season where expected goals no longer matter. With five games at most left to be played in the NHL’s 2023-24 campaign, there’s only enough time remaining for the real goals scored to dictate how the history books ultimately get written.

That’s a monumental challenge for McDavid — the most dangerous Oilers performer in the losses at Amerant Bank Arena. He was the common denominator in the few Grade-A chances the team generated during Monday’s 4-1 loss in Game 2, but there are no moral victories to be found on the game’s brightest stage.

“I think our best players have been pretty good,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. “We’re talking about a different story (if) we (didn’t) hit three goal posts on the power play. We’re probably telling you how good our top players were.”