Connor McDavid broke America’s heart.
The Canadian hockey superstar, a three-time NHL MVP who also won the NHL playoff MVP last season even though he played for the losing Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals, took a centering pass and beat American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with a laser shot to give Canada a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the U.S. in the final of the inaugural—and highly successful—4 Nations Face-Off. The tournament—which pitted teams from the U.S., Canada, Finland, and Sweden against each other as a replacement for the NHL’s usually low-wattage All-Star festivities—drew record viewership, in large part due to a burgeoning U.S.-Canada geopolitical rivalry that spilled out onto the ice.
The last time the U.S. and Canada met in a best-in-class world final that required an overtime session was the gold medal game of the 2010 Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored an overtime goal in Vancouver that sent the home nation into hysterics. McDavid, just like …