The NHL issued a three-game suspension to Edmonton Oilers celebrity Connor McDavid this week for cross-checking Vancouver Canucks ahead Conor Garland late of their sport this weekend.
McDavid was indignant after he had been tackled to the ice and held down by Garland — with no penalty known as — because the Oilers had been making an attempt to tie the sport.
On Tuesday evening, the Oilers determined to challenge a really weird — and comparatively pointless — assertion concerning the suspension.
“The Oilers group is disenchanted and we share in our followers’ frustration over the three-game suspension of our captain Connor McDavid. We help him via this course of and the group and our followers sit up for having him again within the lineup vs. Seattle subsequent week.”
This isn’t the kind of assertion a staff usually makes following a suspension. It virtually looks like a press release only for the sake of constructing a press release and feeding into the followers’ anger.
Particularly when it was a reasonably justified suspension the place McDavid took exception to the shortage of a penalty, took issues into his personal fingers and delivered an inexpensive shot.
There’s additionally now not a course of to help him via. He was punished, he’s not interesting and he’ll return to the lineup in just a few video games.
There’s a very actual dialogue available concerning the NHL, its officiating and the best way it treats star gamers. Whereas leagues just like the NFL and NBA exit of their method to cater to their finest gamers and defend their finest gamers, the NHL tends to do the precise reverse and expects its star gamers to combat via much more. McDavid ought to have drawn a penalty on the play. He ought to most likely draw extra penalties than he does, and if the NHL cared about highlighting its finest gamers, there could be extra consistency in that space.
The shortage of a penalty, nevertheless, doesn’t give any participant the fitting or freedom to ship a cross-check to an opponent’s face.
He has each proper to be annoyed. The NHL’s star gamers have a proper to be annoyed with how they’re handled. However the suspension is justified.
Regardless of the Oilers’ unusual assertion, McDavid has determined to take a distinct strategy. He broke silence on the matter and supplied sage recommendation on the matter — and the Oilers could be sensible to comply with go well with.
