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 recreation this weekend.
McDavid was indignant after he had been tackled to the ice and held down by Garland — with no penalty referred to as — because the Oilers had been making an attempt to tie the sport.
On Tuesday night time, the Oilers determined to difficulty 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 help him by means of 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 workforce usually makes following a suspension. It virtually looks like an announcement only for the sake of constructing an announcement 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 palms and delivered an affordable shot.
There may be additionally now not a course of to help him by means of. He was punished, he isn’t interesting and he’ll return to the lineup in a couple of video games.
There’s a very actual dialogue available relating to the NHL, its officiating and the best way it treats star gamers. Whereas leagues just like the NFL and NBA exit of their option 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 struggle by means of much more. McDavid ought to have drawn a penalty on the play. He ought to in all probability draw extra penalties than he does, and if the NHL cared about highlighting its finest gamers, there can be extra consistency in that space.
The shortage of a penalty, nevertheless, doesn’t give any participant the precise 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 distinct strategy. He broke silence on the matter and offered sage advice on the matter — and the Oilers can be clever to comply with swimsuit.
