McDavid can’t rescue Oilers ...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Connor McDavid is the best player in the world, but he has not won the Stanley Cup.

At least not yet.

The superstar center came within one win of the Cup last year, when the Edmonton Oilers lost to the Florida Panthers in seven games in the Stanley Cup Final.

Now, the Oilers trail the Panthers 3-2 in the Cup Final entering Game 6 of the best-of-7 series at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

How much extra pressure does McDavid feel to drag the series back to Rogers Place in Edmonton for Game 7 on Friday and hoist the Cup for the first time?

“That’s a pretty heavy question,” McDavid said after practice Monday. “I don’t think about it that way. If you think about it that way, you’d be probably pretty crippled in how you prepare and how you play.”

It isn’t up to him alone, anyway.

McDavid can be the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Edmonton can still fall short. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy last year, didn’t he? He was so crushed that he didn’t come out to accept it. You know he would have traded it for the Cup.

This year, McDavid (seven goals, 26 assists) and teammate Leon Draisaitl (11 goals, 22 assists) are tied for the playoff scoring lead with 33 points apiece. Draisaitl leads the Oilers with eight points (four goals, four assists) in the Cup Final. McDavid is right behind with seven points (one goal, six assists).

But having not one but two of the best players in the world might not be enough.

This isn’t, say, basketball -- a team sport, but one in which the best players make a larger impact by the nature of the game.

Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP of the NBA this season, leads the Oklahoma City Thunder in average points (32.8) and minutes (39.5) against the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. That best-of-7 series is tied 2-2.

Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 82 percent of a 48-minute regulation game in the NBA Finals. McDavid (28:32) and Draisaitl (25:56) lead Oilers forwards in ice time in the Cup Final. But their numbers are inflated by four overtime periods, and they’re still playing less than half of a 60-minute regulation game.

“Well, you know, hockey’s a different sport,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said. “It’s a team-oriented sport. You’re not going to win with one guy -- and not even close. I mean, you need everyone pulling on the rope, and one guy can do so much, and he’s done just as much as any one man can do.”

McDavid and Draisaitl often are compared to superstar forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Well, consider this:

Crosby and Malkin lost the Cup Final in six games to the Detroit Red Wings in 2008, then faced the Red Wings in the Cup Final again in 2009. That was the last Cup Final rematch before this one.

The Penguins trailed 3-2 entering Game 6, but they rallied to win the Cup in seven. Malkin led the playoffs with 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) in 24 games and won the Conn Smythe. Crosby was second with 31 points (15 goals, 16 assists) in 24 games. Each hoisted the Cup for the first time.

Guess how many points Crosby had in Games 6 and 7?

Zero.

Guess how many points Malkin had in Games 6 and 7?

One.

It’s easy to forget now, but Pittsburgh’s depth forwards scored the goals at crunch time. Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy scored in a 2-1 win in Game 6, and Max Talbot scored two goals (the first assisted by Malkin) in a 2-1 win in Game 7.

“When you get to the [Cup Final], it’s usually the two best teams, and the two best teams usually have some of the best players, and they’re going up against each other,” Brown said. “So a lot of the time it trickles down the lineup, and you’re going to need depth to come up big.”

McDavid and Draisaitl very well could come up big themselves. McDavid has 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 14 games when facing elimination during his NHL career. At 1.64, he ranks first in points per game when facing elimination in NHL history among players who have played at least five games in that situation. Draisaitl (1.36) is seventh.

But when Edmonton came back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the Cup Final 3-3 last year, McDavid had eight points (three goals, five assists) in Games 4 and 5, then none in Games 6 and 7. Draisaitl had two assists in Game 4 and one assist in Game 6, but no points in Games 5 and 7.

You can say the best player in the world needs to win a championship for his legacy. But even McDavid might need help, and there are a lot of legacies on the line.

“He is the best player in the world, and that’s what we’re striving for, is to get him one,” Oilers forward Corey Perry said. “I think there’s a lot of guys in that room that we’re trying to get one.”