Too Much Pressure on McDavid?

The NHL season is right over and in a certain city in Canada, one proud franchises's fan base seems to be on the rise again. Or is it?

Well, for the Edmonton Oilers and their fan base, they seem pretty ecstatic about their new young rookie taking the ice. That's right, Mr. Connor McDavid.

It was only in early July and the second day of orientation camp where McDavid drew a crowd of spectators that included the new GM, the new President, and the new head coach. I mean, there were other prospects too, but number 97 was the one that drew the most eyes.

Said new head coach Todd McLellan: "The focus isn't solely on him. But it's hard not to have your eyes find 97 to see what he's up to." I mean, really? I know there's a bunch of other prospects you have to keep your eye on too, but number 97 is the reason people are showing up. They want to see what he produces, if he can help the Oilers, and if he can win a Stanley Cup for them. Sounds like a lot of people are riding Connor McDavid on being the next great thing. Even Wayne Gretzky himself says so.

But the question is: Is there gonna be too much pressure on Connor McDavid come the regular season? Will we see him light it up or will he fall down? We've already seen what the Oilers have done with recent No. 1 draft picks. Not well so far. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, Nail Yakupov. Lot of first picks for Edmonton Oilers but not a whole lot of success. So can we really expect Connor McDavid to turn this all around? And all by himself? Let's be fair: the other players can pull their weight, but so far, they haven't been game changers to get this Oilers team back to the playoffs. So I say we wait to see what Connor McDavid has in store. He could be what Wayne Gretzky says he is. Fast, agile, a good scorer, and able to make good plays when they count. But until that time comes, we take it one game at a time. It's an 82-game season. He could be hot at the start, but fizzle out. Or he could be cold and then get hot at the right time. We don't know that.

The Oilers are desperately trying to win, we know that. They want it for their fans, they want it for Canada, and they just want to make everybody there proud. I can understand that. Canada needs a Stanley Cup and Calgary and Montreal couldn't make it happen last year. So can we expect the Oilers to help them out? It's a long season so we will see, but I like that Connor McDavid is developing nicely. Let's see what happens when we put him in a real NHL game.