“Oh man, that is a brutal crosscheck from McDavid. He is sour that Conor Garland had him down.”
Let’s do this! The Cult of Hockey podcast. By the Faithful and for the Faithful. Today Bruce McCurdy and David Staples dig into the Oilers of Edmonton’s 3-2 loss to the Canucks of Vancouver.
With those words Sportsnet commentator Ray Ferraro called the play that will be debated hotly in the next day, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers bashing Vancouver Canucks Conor Garland with a wicked crosscheck, followed by Tyler Myers of the Canucks crosschecking Evan Bouchard with at least as brutal a hack to the face in the following scrum.
“Garland should have had about three penalties, right?” Ferraro said of Garland’s full body hold on McDavid leading up to the crosscheck. “He’s got him pinned to the ice. They’re going to get separated and McDavid turns around and crosschecks him high… The Oilers are furious on their bench.”
Both McDavid and Myers received match penalties and were booted from the game in the dying seconds, which will lead to automatic league review.
On 880 CHED, Bob Stauffer of the Oilers radio network, went on a rant, starting out by saying McDavid will get a suspension but adding Garland should have been called for two or three penalties, and if that had happened, none of the other foul play would have occurred. “Just a horrible officiating performance tonight.”
Stauffer continued: “So what happens is the world’s best player has to take matters into his own hands because this league doesn’t call penalties.”
CHED’s former NHLer Rob Brown said the abuse McDavid takes isn’t close to the abuse that stars like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux had to endure. “What Connor Garland did was a penalty, but it was smart,” Brown said. “He just took the best player out. That was a really smart play.”
Brown said McDavid did wrong and will be suspended, to which Stauffer shot back, blasting NHL player safety officials for not doing their jobs. “These guys think that stars got to play through it. That’s why the NHL ever gets ahead.”
“I don’t care who is your team, they’re both crosschecks to the head,” said Sportsnet’s Kevin Bieksa. “They’re both the same bad crosschecks to the head. They’re both suspensions. I don’t know how you argue there. But if there’s ever an argument to keep fighting in the NHL.”
Edmonton has its six best attackers on the ice, so no one is going to fight, Bieksa said. “So something is going to give. When it gets down to this something is going to give. And because there is no fighting, or you don’t want these guys to fight, this is what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a cross-check to the face… No fighting, more cross-checks to the face in my opinion.”
Sportsnet’s Kelly Hrudey predicted at least a two-game suspension for both McDavid and Myers.
Said Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch: “Connor gets frustrated and he gets his stick up. He’s frustrated because we’re down one goal and the best player in the league is getting held for 15 seconds. And the frustration that that’s allowed to happen, and his stick got up.”
