"He's going to get his chances because the guy is an incredible athlete and he's shown to be the MVP," Olczyk said. "Look, Todd McLellan to me is the Coach of the Year in the National Hockey League. Obviously, when you have the Most Valuable Player in the National Hockey League, it goes hand in hand. But he's going to get his chances. So I think that for San Jose, if they can identify where he is on the ice and let somebody else be the guy carrying that puck ... the one thing that [McDavid] can do is he can cause separation as well as any player in the League."
The Sharks, who reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in their history last season, could be without forwards Joe Thornton (knee) and Logan Couture (mouth) in Game 1. They went 4-9-0 in their final 13 regular-season games.
"I think the Sharks pretty much stumbled coming into the playoffs for good reason," analyst Jeremy Roenick said. "It's very, very difficult to lose two of your most important players, and especially down the middle. Not having [Thornton] 100 percent really diminishes the Sharks' chances against a team like the Edmonton Oilers, who are going to be absolutely flying on excitement, on their youth, their adrenaline, having a Connor McDavid leading the way."