Mark Madden: Among my top 5 greats, Connor McDavid approaching all-time status

I have long been steadfast when listing my top five hockey players ever.

Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky are my top three. List them in any order you like, and I won’t argue.

Sidney Crosby and Gordie Howe are my next two. (Howe is included based on tradition, not witness. Same goes for Maurice “Rocket” Richard, who’s just out of my top five.)

I have considered that list beyond debate. I felt there was a decent-sized drop between my top five/six and the next grouping.

But winds of change are in the air.

Alex Ovechkin is 114 goals behind Gretzky’s all-time mark. If Ovechkin breaks Gretzky’s record, quantity forces him onto my list.

Then there’s Connor McDavid.

Now that his Edmonton Oilers are no longer underachieving in the playoffs, McDavid checks every box besides a Stanley Cup: regular-season stats and awards, postseason dominance and, most importantly, the eye test.

If you’re a very top player in any sport, you’ve got to look the part. You must electrify.

McDavid qualifies. What he’s currently doing hasn’t been done since Lemieux shredded his way to two consecutive playoff MVPs in 1991 and ’92.

McDavid has 26 points in 12 playoff games. His streak of seven multi-point games was ended Thursday at Calgary when he only got one point — the series-ending goal in overtime.

Teammate Leon Draisaitl also has 26 points. Teammate Evander Kane has 12 goals to McDavid’s seven.

But McDavid is different. He’s the man. It flows from him. It’s been the same with the Penguins when anybody’s outdone Crosby, however briefly.

The very best hockey players have one thing they do better than anybody ever: Gretzky’s vision and playmaking. Lemieux’s pure finishing. Crosby’s work in traffic, 200-foot game and play on the backhand.

McDavid makes moves at top speed. Blink and you miss it. A few have been faster. But nobody has been faster while possessing the puck. It’s mind-boggling. His hands and decision-making improbably keep up with his skates.

In a playoff where headhunting and mowing down goalies have made too much news, McDavid and his Oilers are an advertisement for what hockey should be. They have the talent and acceleration to not be overwhelmed by system, whether it’s the other team’s or theirs. They go, go, go.

The Oilers are so fast and so good they can lure you into their web.

Calgary won Game 1 of their series, 9-6. The teams combined for four goals in 71 seconds in Thursday’s Game 5, each team scoring two.

But when a foe tries to beat Edmonton at their own game, they can’t. Calgary didn’t, anyway.

McDavid and Edmonton vs. Nathan MacKinnon and Colorado in the Western Conference final would be an advertisement for hockey. (Unless the Avalanche’s Nazem Kadri knocks McDavid’s head off.)

McDavid and Edmonton vs. two-time defending champ Tampa Bay in the Stanley Cup Final would be epic. It would have the feel of Gretzky and Edmonton vs. the New York Islanders in 1983 and ’84. The Islanders won their fourth straight Cup in ’83, then the Oilers dethroned them in ’84 to win the first of five Cups in seven seasons.

But look for something to go awry before that. That’s how the NHL works.

I’m not sure how my all-time list will look a few years from now.

Can McDavid go all the way to the top?

Depends how much he wins.