McDavid’s looming suspension overshadows Oilers’ loss to Canucks
So much for Connor McDavid versus Alex Ovechkin Tuesday night. It’s difficult to fathom how the cross-check to the side of Conor Garland’s head by McDavid at the end of Saturday’s 3-2 loss will not draw at least a one-game suspension, if not a two-gamer.
So much for Connor McDavid versus Alex Ovechkin Tuesday night in Edmonton.
It is impossible to predict the machinations of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, or guess where the Wheel of Justice will spin to a stop on any one suspendable act. But it is just as difficult to fathom how the cross-check to the side of Conor Garland’s head by McDavid at the end of Saturday’s 3-2 loss will not draw at least a one-game suspension, if not a two-gamer.
The McDavid cross-check is not defendable. But it was avoidable.
If the on-ice officials would have blown the play dead while the feisty Garland — unconcerned with taking a penalty as his team clung to the lead in the final 20 seconds of the game — mugged McDavid right in the middle of the Canucks zone, McDavid may have settled for the powerplay instead.
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But Garland effectively engaged McDavid in about 12 seconds of Greco-Roman wrestling as the clock ticked down, and the referees allowed it. What followed was a late-game melee between two heated rivals that should land two players in the press box watching their teams’ next game or two.
It was poor work by two veteran zebras, Chris Lee and Wes McCauley.
“There’s a rivalry and Connor gets frustrated,” described Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Connor gets his stick up, and he’s frustrated because we’re down one goal, and the best player in the league is getting held for 15 seconds. There’s frustration that’s allowed to happen, and his stick got up.”
Leon Draisaitl, who scored goals No. 32 and 33 in the loss, was more zen about the whole affair.
“It’s hockey. It happens. It’s intense,” he said. “We couldn’t get one, and then a little bit of fisticuffs. Nothing major.”
McDavid’s penalty — again, not excusable — was borne of frustration. You don’t have to squint real hard to see where it came from.
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Myers infraction? We’re not sure why a cross-check to an opponent’s face was his recourse.
With the game all but decided and less than three seconds on the clock, Bouchard approached while yapping at the big Canucks defenceman. Myers responded with a cross-check directly to Bouchard’s face.
Normally in that situation, a player Myers’ size (six-foot-eight, 229 pounds) — faced with a skilled player for whom hockeyfights.com records zero NHL scraps — might just drop the gloves. He chose a cross-check to the face, and that will make for a difficult defence when the phone rings from New York.
As both McDavid and Myers received match penalties, they’ll both have the chance to defend their actions in a hearing with the league.
•••
Pass The Shovel
It’s simply no way to live.
Three nights earlier, the Edmonton Oilers had fallen behind 2-0 in Minnesota but crawled back to win 5-3. The next night in Denver, they overcame a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3.
So when the Vancouver Canucks took a 3-0 first-period lead over Edmonton on Saturday night, there were two ways to look at it.
Either the Oilers were practiced in the art of the comeback, and they had the Canucks exactly where they wanted them. Or, they were pushing their luck, especially at the end of a wicked two-week span of travel.
Turns out it was the latter, as Draisaitl scored two goals to make things close, but the Oilers could not find the third in a 3-2 loss.
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“Two (first period) penalties, two power-play goals,” Knoblauch said. “That was a big part of it, giving up those two. We were able to get one power-play goal, and they had two. That’s the difference in the game
“We just couldn’t generate enough offence to get that third one.”
The Oilers had won eight of their past nine games, while the Canucks had lost six of their past seven. Edmonton came into the game as the NHL leader in shots on goal per game (32.2), while the Canucks were dead last at 25.1.
Of course, the Canucks would turn out to be the better team Saturday, outscoring Edmonton and outshooting them 27-15.
So ends the most difficult fortnight in the 2024-25 regular season, an eight-game segment that spanned eight different cities — including Edmonton for one game — beginning and ending in the Pacific time zone but stretching through all four North American time zones.
They played eight games in 15 days with a flight every second day, and ended the run with a 6-2 record. Edmonton started the trip six points behind Vegas in the Pacific, and ended it tied for first place.
Incredible, really, to have played .750 hockey through that challenging stretch.
