Connor McDavid is dead and Cole Cassels killed him.
Sure, that may seem like completely unreasonable hyperbole, borne out of just two games of tightly-contested playoff hockey. That’s because it is. But that won’t stop the Cole Cassels hype train, which left the station as soon as Game 1 of the OHL Championship ended and has been picking up steam ever since.
Some of the hype is warranted: Cassels has massively exceeded expectations since the Canucks selected him in the third round of the 2013 NHL entry draft. At the time, Cassels had fairly underwhelming numbers, scoring 43 points in 64 games in his draft year, but was lauded for his gritty and defensively sound two-way game.