Connor McDavid‘s last game out against the Detroit Red Wings particularly wasn’t up to his standards, and a recent explanation of a sickness in the locker room may explain the dip in play.

Yesterday, McDavid threw some shade at the Toronto Maple Leafs ahead of their game tonight.

Connor McDavid looked visibly off to Oilers fans, may be playing through illness

At yesterday’s practice, Mattias Ekholm and John Klingberg both weren’t on the ice. According to Coach Knoblauch, both players were dealing with an illness.

In the Oilers last game against the Detroit Red Wings, McDavid was still obviously displaying dominant skill, but was bobbling some pucks, overskating at times – just making uncharacteristic mistakes. Fans noticed something was off with McDavid.

When a sickness affects one NHL player, it often goes through their whole locker room. In McDavid’s media availability yesterday, he did appear to have some scruff in his voice.

Some Oilers fans have recently been debating if McDavid is fully healthy after noticing his shooting statistics drop over the last two seasons. McDavid is shooting less, and shooting less accurately.

At the same time, McDavid is such an otherworldly player that any slight drop in production immediately jumps out.

There’s no real explanation for the shooting drop, but this year McDavid is on pace to score significantly less than last year.

Hopefully it is just an illness that McDavid is playing through, and by all signs, that is a minor issue that could be ailing him. He still should be ready to go and bring his best against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight on home ice.