Playing back home in Toronto with Oilers ‘means more,’ McDavid says 

TORONTO -- Connor McDavid was relieved.

Not so much that he’d reached the career 1,000-point milestone in the Edmonton Oilers’ 3-2 overtime victory against the Nashville Predators at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Thursday.

Or that his Oilers are making their first and only regular-season visit to Toronto on Saturday, when friends and family from his hometown of Newmarket, 35 miles north of Scotiabank Arena, will be on hand to watch Edmonton face the Toronto Maple Leafs as part of Hockey Night in Canada’s national broadcast (7 p.m. ET; CBC, SNO, SNP, NHLN).

No, the real reason he was grateful was that the Oilers’ team buses, carrying players and coaches who’d just flown in from Edmonton on Friday afternoon, did not have to deal with the thousands upon thousands of so-called “Swifties” who have descended on this city for Taylor Swift’s six-concert run here.

“It was a quick turnaround on the plane (after reaching the milestone), just trying to get to Toronto early to beat all the Taylor Swift traffic,” he said with a chuckle after the Oilers’ morning skate Saturday. “So, that’s been a quick turnaround.”

Were they successful in avoiding the congestion en route to traveling from Pearson Airport to the team hotel?

“Yeah, we managed to do it,” he said. “At the same time, it’s cool to see the city so excited.”

Not just for Swift, either.

Indeed, it’s always a special night when McDavid comes home. Just ask the Belleville Senators, the Ottawa Senators’ American Hockey League affiliate.

It already was a chaotic scene in downtown Toronto by noon ET Saturday. Fans already were lined up for Swift’s third consecutive show at Rogers Centre, home of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays. Just four blocks away is Scotiabank Arena, where Belleville and the Toronto Marlies faced off for an AHL matinee before the Maple Leafs and Oilers clashed in the evening.

As the Oilers were going through drills during their morning skate, a number of Belleville players gathered to watch McDavid do his thing, periodically calling out “Wow” at seeing the Edmonton captain dipsy-doodling all over the ice.

Swift, it seems, wasn’t the only marquee name in town on this day.

In McDavid’s case, he’s always embraced playing here. In 10 career games in Toronto, he has 16 points (three goals, 13 assists), including six (one goal, five assists) in his past two.

“Of course, of course,” he said. “Saturday night hockey in front of friends and family. Of course, it means more.”

The 27-year-old comes honestly by those words.

Consider that during a 1-on-1 sit-down at Erie Insurance Arena on Feb. 8, 2015, McDavid, an 18-year-old with the Erie Otters at the time, opened up about what it would be like to play for the Maple Leafs.

“That would be an absolute dream come true,” he said. “It’s pretty crazy to even think about.”

“I’m from Toronto,” he continued. You have to be a Leafs fan. So, of course, I was. Of course. My dad was a Leafs fan. Every Saturday night watching Hockey Night in Canada would be my favorite time.

“I still remember going to my first ever Leafs game. It was a Rangers-Leafs game. The Leafs won 4-1. I don’t remember (which players) were playing or who was scoring. I just remember that when my dad and I would drive down, we always used to joke who could guess the score. And for whatever reason, I picked Leafs to win 4-1. And that’s what happened.

“I’ll remember that forever.”

What fans in these parts remember, at least when it comes to McDavid, was his spectacular goal in which he turned Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly inside-out in the Oilers 6-4 victory on January 6, 2020, one that had Wayne Gretzky, who was watching from a private box, “jumping out of my seat.”

Rielly isn’t the only quality defenseman McDavid has done that to over the years; he did the same to Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final last spring, a game Edmonton won 2-1 to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

Asked if there is a blueprint to stop the Oilers’ No. 97, Rielly replied, “I don’t think so.

“I think you have to play within your structure,” he said after the Maple Leafs’ morning skate. “You have to play together as a team, and I don’t think you can go off the board with any kind of game plan. I think you’ve got to stick to what makes your team successful.

“He’s scored a lot of those impressive goals, so you’ve just got to be ready and aware when he’s out there.

“It takes a team.”