FEATURE: In Connor's company

TORONTO, ON - Here comes the Connor McDavid show, arriving in Toronto bigger than ever before ahead of this weekend's Hockey Night in Canada clash with the Maple Leafs.
The circus that the captain and the world's greatest hockey player attracts with every journey back to his hometown with the Edmonton Oilers is a spectacle to behold. This season, with his sublime 124 points in 66 games and 154-point pace, the buzz we usually feel when McDavid enters Scotiabank Arena has become a vibration of near seismic levels -- especially after the 26-year-old phenom was forced to miss their last trip to Toronto in 2021-22 due with illness.
The jerseys and fans that greeted him at the team hotel after the Oilers arrived from Boston early Friday morning followed him into the bowl at Scotiabank Arena for practice, where they caught a glimpse of McDavid ripping around the ice before jerseys were laid over the dividers between the stands and the dressing room tunnel for a chance at grabbing the Generational Talent's autograph.
Within the Oilers room after the skate, quotes from the captain were considered just as valuable. A media scrum approximately 15 individuals deep with microphones and cameras flanked McDavid on all sides to gather his thoughts on his incredible season, the Oilers growth as a team, his objectives, and of course, Saturday night's opponent in the Buds.

This meeting will be the ninth time in McDavid's career that he's played against the Maple Leafs in Toronto, but only the second time on a Saturday night, which brings with it the stage of competing coast-to-coast on Hockey Night in Canada.
"Yeah, it's always a little bit special. Especially since it's Saturday night," he said. "They always have us playing on a Monday or a Wednesday here or something like that, but it's fun that it's on a Saturday."
Even with the attention toward his return being at its highest ever in his eight-year NHL career, McDavid's schedule away from the rink has never been more low-key.
"Yeah, you know what? I don't have a ton going on," he said. "Most of my family has kind of moved away, and I got buddies that are kind of out and abroad, so not a ton going for me.
"My brother's away as well, so not a lot of people circled it on their calendar I guess," he joked.
"I think I'm just having dinner with my mom and that'll be kind of it."

McDavid has two goals and eight assists in eight games at Scotiabank Arena in his career, and who can forget his first-ever goal in the building back on Jan. 6, 2020 when he effortlessly shoulder-faked Morgan Rielly at the blue line before undressing Michael Hutchinson and pointing his left index finger to the sky as the applause from both sides of the matchup rained down on him from the stands for his spectacular move.
For all the outside expectations of a big performance from Connor on Saturday night, McDavid isn't bothered by any of it. He'll take a quiet night or a spectacular night, as long as it means Edmonton's getting two points to stretch their win streak to three games and further solidify their playoff standing.
"I want the Edmonton Oilers win. That's all I want," he said. "And if that's how it works out personally, great; if not, and I have to play a lesser role, that's great too. The biggest thing is coming in here and winning a big game against a good team in a tough building, so that's our focus."

The outside world has bared witness to the magic of McDavid's on-ice contributions this season, but what fans, media and others don't see in the Oilers dressing room is his growth in the leadership department that's helping push his teammates and the club toward the Stanley Cup.
"Him stepping up that part of his game, it's not just about setting an example for Connor McDavid -- it's about pushing teammates to do things the right way and that's something as a coach I'm privy to," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "I get to see someone who's taking a real step on that side of things."
"He's an awesome guy. He's an awesome player," centre Derek Ryan added. "Obviously the best in the world in my opinion, but his leadership skills don't get talked about very often and they're elite. He comes to the rink every day a true professional, works hard and he's always building up his team."

The Oilers got a glimpse at the standard needed to move past the Western Conference Final last season as they prepare to make another foray into the Stanley Cup Playoffs this campaign, having built up their ranks at the Trade Deadlien with the acquisitions of defenceman Mattias Ekholm and forward Nick Bjugstad for another playoff push.
"I think last year's run, what it did was wet the appetite of a lot of people that haven't been that far before and it left people with a sense of hunger to continue to get better and to continue to grow," Woodcroft said.
"I thought in that third-round playoff series, we learned that the margins are razor thin and we've spent all year preparing ourselves to make sure that we're ready for game number 83."
In the captain's corner, that hunger for success cannot be satisfied.
"Insatiable," Woodcroft said.