Cote: Blasphemy! Vindication? How ‘McDavid overrated’ took on life of its own in Stanley Cup Final | Opinion
So I thought I had seen or done just about everything this journalism business has to offer ... until this month. That’s when silly drama involving me and Edmonton Oilers hockey superstar Connor McDavid took on a bizarre little life of its own as the Florida Panthers were beating both en route to winning the Stanley Cup Final and the club’s first NHL championship Monday night.
It started June 3 with my column of random observations on the Stanley Cup Final and NBA Finals as both were starting. The beginning of the headline read:
“Connor McDavid is overrated and other thoughts...”
Nobody cared about the other thoughts, apparently.
But me daring question let alone besmirching McDavid they did care about, especially in Canada, where hockey was invented but evidently not perfected, as none of that country’s teams has won a Stanley Cup since 1993.
(Don’t be depressed, Northern Neighbor. You still have curling!)
McDavid’s nicknames include McJesus, The Chosen One and The Next Gretzky. He is really, really good. Never disputed that. But as I wrote, ”He puts up big, impressive stats, yes. But should he really be called ‘generational,’ called the best player in the sport, when in nine seasons he has yet to lead his team to a Stanley Cup? He has not proved beyond-stats transcendent, able to lift a franchise to ultimate heights. McOverrated.”
It was that nickname that got to people. Maybe more, it was the gall of a Non-Hockey Writer from a place where rivers don’t freeze daring to blaspheme a Canadian deity. I may as well have published tawdry photos of Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Canadians are so darned polite, I guess nobody up there had ever thought to wonder why McDavid gets to keep being seen as all that when he keeps not being a champion.
Politely, Canada began to call me an idiot. It started with Mike Johnson on TSN’s “SportsCenter,” a national show, wondering aloud if I knew the puck was round, or what color the blue line was.
Other Canadian sports outlets and some in the U.S. shared the incredulity, as did hockey fans on social media.
It might have been my infamous (so-called) “Trade Marino” column that was talked about more. That one aged pretty well. So will “McOverrated,” unless and until he lifts a Stanley Cup.
It got out that McDavid’s own father was aware of what I’d written and none too happy.
My “McOverrated” even was lampooned on ESPN’s Stanley Cup Final broadcast by Steve Levy and P.K. Subban. Mark Messier was asked about it on the Dan LeBatard Show.
To LeBatard — I appear on his popular podcast on Tuesdays and occasional other times — what ha’d written and the reaction to it was pure gold. Le Batard likes controversy, and likes making fun of me. So he hit the jackpot. It has been a staple of the show all during the Final, right up to Tuesday’s show.
The Le Batard merch store began selling “McOverrated” T-shirts with my likeness, and the show is airing a song called “McOverrated,” with a reference to me being “vindicated” over what I had written because the Panthers won -- and denied McDavid’s coronation as a champion.
Indeed, my entire original premise of “overrated” in this case simply meant McDavid needs to win at least one Cup to be on that highest of tiers.
He almost made it this time. Ah, but he didn’t.
I almost had to amend his nickname to “McProperlyRated.” Ah, but I don’t.
After Game 7 ended at least two dozen fellow journalists and others at the arena congratulated me as if I had won anything.
Maybe I had.
Plenty of Panthers fans said they would blame me directly if Florida lost the series, as if two paragraphs written by some guy in Miami could possibly carry weight in how a Stanley Cup Final played out. (Belief in superstitions and jinxes is as real in sports fandom as it is hilarious.)
But I dodged the ire of Cats fans looking to lay blame with Monday night’s 2-1 win.
McDavid still had no Cup to hold and I’ll admit I felt a bit of relief as colleagues clapped my back and shook my hand.
Postscript:
Should you have happened to be driving around Edmonton, Alberta, Canada this week you might have noticed a new digital billboard had popped up courtesy of the LeBatard Show. Next to my face the billboard would have read:
GREG COTE WAS RIGHT.
But the advertising company rejected the billboard, telling the Le Batard Show,”Your ad request will not be processed. This messaging does not meet our standards.” Apparently their policy includes “not tweaking Oilers fans even if it’s all in ridiculous fun.”
Just as well, maybe.
The locals might have burned down or vandalized the billboard.
Then again, being Canada, more likely they’d have driven past it with no more than a look of apparent mild reproach.
This story was originally published June 25, 2024 at 5:01 PM.
