Connor McDavid and the End of Innocence

On any other day at any other rink, perhaps no one would've batted an eye.

But Connor McDavid saw it. And so did 6,000 raucous fans, hungry for McDavid's blood—or a slip up, as it were.

McDavid, known for his explosive stride, was a step too quick as his Erie Otters tried to enter the Oshawa Generals zone and the play was blown dead. Offside. The 18-year old McDavid shot a quick look, something that resembled a scowl, to the referee and the crowd bellowed in a mix of approval and disdain. He didn't get the call he wanted, and as Game 2 of the Ontario Hockey League final wore on, McDavid didn't get much of anything he wanted.

No gaps between errant defensemen for a clear look at the net. No lucky bounces for a puck that could get through Generals goalie Ken Appleby, who also happened to be outstanding. No points for McDavid on the scoresheet as the physical Generals dominated the young phenom at every turn.

"We're trying to do something special with a group of guys that we'll never forget," McDavid said before his Otters lost grip of the series.

Generals coach D.J. Smith admitted after the game that his team was trying to get McDavid to go through five players every time he got the puck. McDavid's frustration was evident, and that frustration mounted throughout the entire series. He captured playoff MVP honors, but it was the Generals who secured the most coveted prize, downing McDavid's Otters in five games to win the OHL final.

The championship series against the powerhouse Generals, a team whose depth outlasted the high-octane combo of McDavid and fellow projected top-five pick Dylan Strome, will go down as a major turning point in the former's career both literally and figuratively.

McDavid has played his last games in junior hockey as his ascension to the NHL is all but guaranteed. The Edmonton Oilers are set to select him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft in Sunrise, Florida, at the end of June.

But in a broader scope, this was the end of McDavid's time spent dancing around wildly inferior opponents. The centre enjoyed a booming end to his OHL career, tallying 120 points during the regular season—including his first 40-goal campaign— to finish nine back of the scoring title despite missing 21 games with a hand injury. He followed it up by scoring a playoff-high 49 points in 20 games.

Along the way, McDavid has built up the kind of mythology reserved for players such as Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky, and we all know how that turned out.

Years from now, McDavid may look back on his last OHL playoff series as a simpler time.

He has been fawned over his whole life and his talents speak for themselves, even if he always doesn't. McDavid is remarkably soft-spoken. He's quiet and unassuming, a direct contrast to Otters teammate Strome, who exerts more of a cocksure swagger.

The kind of demeanour needed to survive through a long NHL career is often at the discretion of coaches and general managers. But the Oilers are more than happy to take their chances with the generally shy McDavid.

How McDavid feels about that is a different story. He didn't exactly look thrilled after it was announced the Oilers had won the draft lottery, and you could understand why.

The Newmarket, Ontario, native is being sent to a team with the longest playoff drought in the NHL, and one that has a culture of losing and disappointment firmly entrenched. Young, offensive talents are sent to watch their explosive prospects die in a tire-fire of mismanagement and horrendous defensive efforts.

Securing three of the last four No. 1 overall selections in the NHL draft, only to remain a bottom-feeding team, has done nothing to stop Oilers fans from buying into the McDavid hype. He's already being vaulted above established youngsters such as Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, players that were once expected to lead the Oilers back to the promised land.

Longtime Otters owner and GM Sherry Bassin drafted McDavid when he was 15 years old and has developed a strong relationship with him. After McDavid won the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL's Most Outstanding Player of the Year, Bassin spoke at length about the importance of the most decorated player in the league's "Value system" and how special he is both on and off the ice.

But the NHL is a different animal, one with its own set of values that has seen many young players crucified in the media, chewed up and spit out for taking part in questionable activities.

For his part, McDavid was defiant about how his value system will help him handle the adjustment between junior hockey and the NHL.

"I don't think that it's going to be a problem," he said. "It's just the way I was raised. My family has been so great with me and they support me through everything I do and they're always there for me. I don't think anything is going to change.

"A lot has changed outside of my life but personally nothing has changed too much and that's because of the people around me."

He hasn't been coddled throughout his career, but the leap from junior hockey to the NHL means McDavid is entering a tougher world—the sport he plays and continually professes to love is a cold, hard business. Given his junior accolades, he will be expected to produce while facing men who love to knock young players of high esteem down a peg or two.

McDavid is entering a league wherein even teams such as the Pittsburgh Penguins, blessed with two of the most offensively-potent players in the league in Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, have faced recent struggles and been unable to follow up on their 2009 Stanley Cup victory. The best teams are the ones that blend a mixture of size and speed and roll four strong lines, refusing to bank only on high-end talent. McDavid alone won't be able to catapult the Oilers to the top.

He's headed to a team owned by Daryl Katz, a reclusive owner who just so happened to have recently won a $4.6 million settlement against Bassin after he failed to repay a loan—speculation grew all along that Katz was simply using the Otters as a pawn in his game to get more funding out of the City of Edmonton for a new arena.

Once Katz and the Oilers brass officially bring the young star to Western Canada, McDavid will be one step closer to his master plan for hockey dominance. Getting drafted first overall was among a list of goals he wrote down when he was younger.

In Edmonton, where fan expectations have reached a tipping point due to the team's eternal rebuild, McDavid will be expected to produce quickly for a franchise that hasn't been to the playoffs since the 2005-06 season.

No pressure, young one. No pressure at all.