Connor McDavid took a new approach to his off-season training this summer after realizing that overtraining last year led to a sluggish start to his 2023-24 season.
In an all-encompassing interview with Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, McDavid spoke about how his previous approach led to him feeling fatigued early by the time the regular season rolled around.
“I went with a little bit of a different strategy this summer,” he said. “In years past, it’s just been very volume heavy, Very go, go, go. Throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks. That strategy, as well as it’s worked for me, I think about the beginning of last year.
“I was just very tired and fatigued from a long summer of training, and was not feeling very good on the ice. And it translated.”
By the time the Oilers made a coaching change early in the season, replacing Jay Woodcroft with Kris Knoblauch, the club had gone 3-9-1, and McDavid had missed a pair of games due to injury. In the 11 he played, he had scored just two goals and 10 points — good production for nearly any player in the league, but McDavid isn’t just any other player. His production was half of that through the first 11 games of any of his three prior seasons.
But this summer, McDavid told Spector he was determined to learn lesson, changing around his training regime.
“This summer I took some time off the ice, rested a little bit,” he said. “I was working hard off the ice, but I didn’t go on the ice until August. Five great weeks on the ice, and I’m feeling good and ready to roll again.”
Despite last year’s slow start, he more than made up for it by the end of the year, scoring 32 goals and 100 assists for 132 points, carrying it into a record-setting playoff run, where he added eight goals and 34 assists for 42 points.
The Oilers will be looking for another deep playoff run this year, with the team having already been in Cup or Bust mode for some time. Last year they stretched the Florida Panthers to Game 7, falling just short, something McDavid told Spector isn’t easy to get over.
“It’s something that you’ll never really get over,” he said. “You’ll never not feel those emotions when you think about it. But ultimately, time moves on, and you’ve got to get ready to go again.
“Every year, the team takes shape in ways that you don’t always expect. Last year, our identity was built around this team that is just never going to die. Like, you’re never going to be able to put us out. And ultimately, it took right down to the very, very last game of the whole season to do that.
“That belief is still there within everybody that’s in that room and in that organization. But with that being said, there are new pieces, there are new faces, and this group is going to take on an identity of its own.”
