The NHL issued a three-game suspension to Edmonton Oilers famous person Connor McDavid this week for cross-checking Vancouver Canucks ahead Conor Garland late of their sport this weekend.
McDavid was offended after he had been tackled to the ice and held down by Garland — with no penalty known as — because the Oilers have been trying to tie the sport.
On Tuesday evening, the Oilers determined to concern a really weird — and comparatively pointless — statement regarding the suspension.
“The Oilers group is upset and we share in our followers’ frustration over the three-game suspension of our captain Connor McDavid. We assist him by way of this course of and the group and our followers look ahead to having him again within the lineup vs. Seattle subsequent week.”
This isn’t the kind of assertion a workforce 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 dearth of a penalty, took issues into his personal arms and delivered an affordable shot.
There’s additionally not a course of to assist him by way of. He was punished, he’s not interesting and he’ll return to the lineup in a couple of 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 approach to cater to their finest gamers and shield their finest gamers, the NHL tends to do the precise reverse and expects its star gamers to struggle by way of 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, nonetheless, doesn’t give any participant the appropriate or freedom to ship a cross-check to an opponent’s face.
He has each proper to be pissed off. The NHL’s star gamers have a proper to be pissed off with how they’re handled. However the suspension is justified.
Regardless of the Oilers’ unusual assertion, McDavid has determined to take a special strategy. He broke silence on the matter and offered sage advice on the matter — and the Oilers could be smart to comply with swimsuit.
