‘If it takes you 15 minutes to determine if it’s offside or not, it probably doesn’t matter:’ Oilers captain Connor McDavid unloads after controversial goal review

Connor McDavid is not impressed with a lengthy review that saw an Edmonton Oilers goal called off.

It came after the Oilers’ 2-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night when McDavid was asked for his thoughts on an offside that cost his club a goal.

With the Oilers holding a 2-1 lead three minutes into the third period, Leon Draisaitl was at the Blackhawks blueline when he corraled a puck bounced off the wall by defenceman Darnell Nurse. He took the puck in his skates before finding McDavid across the ice, who gave Zach Hyman an easy tap-in on the backside of the net.

But right after, the Blackhawks coaching staff began looking for the goal and challenged for an offside. After a lengthy review, it was overturned.

“If it takes you 15 minutes to determine if it’s offside or not, it probably doesn’t matter,” said McDavid after the game. “I talked to the linesman after; ultimately, it’s not their call, I guess. Obviously, they said it came down from the league.

“You zoom in, you zoom in, you keep zooming in until you can’t zoom in anymore, I guess it’s offside. These are calls that change games, and ultimately, it didn’t go our way. That was a big call; it would’ve really hurt them.

“I thought it should’ve been onside. It’s kind of possession too, right? The argument of possession, that whole debate can start again. It was such a close one. You’d like to see it. I think the NHL uses the analogy ‘dead wrong’… They want it to be clear and obvious, right? That one’s certainly not clean and obvious.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch offered up his own firey answer on the review, too.

“We get about 30 seconds to decide if it’s a good goal or not. I’m not sure how long they get to decide,” said Knoblauch. “We’re at a little bit of a disadvantage.

“I’m not going to argue with the outcome of either one of those. It was a tough one, but I’m sure they felt they got the right call.”

It’s not the first time McDavid, or other members of the Oilers have been outspoken about controversial calls. In Dec. 2022, he was outspoken about another reviewed offside call that pulled an Oilers goal back, while his teammate Draisaitl was critical of the referees’ standards in their playoff series against the LA Kings this past spring.

Oilers fans, too, will remember McDavid telling referee Steve Kozari to “go upstairs!” back in 2018.

Nonetheless, McDavid has become a vocal leader of this Oilers team over the last number of years, and his latest soundbite shows just how competitive he is, and how driven for success he is.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.