Connor McDavid facing accusations of rigging the skills competition for himself

Leading up to this weekend’s All-Star festivities in Toronto, there was lots of discussion surrounding the skills competition and how the NHL could improve it. To ensure things improved over last year’s event in Florida, the league reached out to Connor McDavid to help set up the individual competitions to restore the competition to its former glory.

To the credit of both McDavid and the league, the skills competition was much more entertaining this year than it has been in a very long time. To no one’s surprise, though, McDavid walked away with the $1M prize. Although McDavid is the best player in the league, many fans took to social media following his win to question whether he had set up the event to help himself with the $1M prize. Even The Athletic’s James Mirtle went as far as saying “Connor McDavid wins the Connor McDavid skills competition.”

McDavid downplayed his involvement in redesigning the competition during his press conference following the event, saying that there were lots of people involved, naming members of the NHL, but did not name another player that had any input.

As mentioned, this was by far the best skills competition in a long time, and kudos to McDavid for helping revive it. It does, however, seem a little suspicious that the guy that revamped each individual skill event is also the one that won half of them and the overall competition, does it not? At the very least, it gave him a competitive edge that the other players didn’t have.

Former NHL defenseman defends Connor McDavid after cross-check gets him ejected

Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger defended Connor McDavid today after he was ejected last night for cross-checking.

The Oilers superstar was ejected in the dying seconds of last night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.

The game misconduct came as a result of him cross-checking Canucks forward Connor Garland in the head after the two players were engaged in a lengthy grappling match.

Now, McDavid is facing a hearing for his actions, most likely leading to a suspension.

That being said, there are some in the hockey world who are defending McDavid today.

Perhaps most notably, Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger came out supporting the Oilers captain, saying he loved it.

‘Does anyone else NOT have a problem w/what McDavid did here? Or even low-key LOVED it?He needs to do this more often maybe not to the level of suspension like this but it will give him some extra space. Teams key on taking time and space away from him and try to frustrate him. Taking it into your own hands is good … sometimes’

Pronger is not the only one defending McDavid either. After all, he was being held by Garland before the cross-check, and the officials appeared as though they were just going to let it go.

That being said, McDavid may have crossed a line with his reaction. Many fans would probably be okay with a cross-check, but the fact that he got Garland in the head is hard to defend.

Similarly, the NHL has seemingly taken a more strict stance against plays like this when the head is the primary point of contact.

It appears as though we may have to wait until tomorrow to find out McDavid’s fate, so tune in tomorrow to see how many games he will have to sit out.