Watching McDavid, hard to forget how close Canes came – DeCock

Jaccob Slavin knew it was Connor McDavid bearing down on him, and not only because he had to be alert every time he was on the ice at the same time as McDavid, which was often Friday night.

McDavid had pinned Slavin into the boards at the other end of the ice, and while Slavin was able to beat him back toward the Carolina Hurricanes’ net, it wasn’t by much. So McDavid, came in on the left wing with the puck, thinking about making a play, only for Slavin to deftly poke-check the puck away.

“I knew he was trying to take off so I just tried to get back as quick as I could there,” Slavin said. “He’s a very talented player. You can’t give him too much respect. You have to take away his time and…