So your boy Baggedmilk was at the game last night and when I got to the office this morning I started cruising the interwebs for anything I may have missed. The thing that stood out to me the most was the graphic that Sportsnet put up showing all the maladies Connor was playing through. Why wasn’t this a bigger story? 

Looking at the list of illnesses that Connor was playing through is mindblowing to me. Dude must have had a suitcase full of cold and sinus pills just to get him through the day. The craziest part of it all could be the fact that we didn’t know about any of it. I guess I’m just confused why this laundry list of viral invaders was kept a secret. You’d think when the biggest star in the league is fighting every illness under the sun that it would be a major story, but I guess not.

I mean, yeah we did hear that he was under the weather but this list makes the news of him being “sick” seem like an understatement. Then again, maybe it’s just me being soft but the thought of doing anything when I’m sick is a struggle let alone playing NHL games. With that in mind, all I can think about is how good Connor McDavid is at hockey considering he was still over a point per game when he was pooing his lungs out. I assume the media that travels with the team knew the extent of his illness but chose not report on it. Keeping everyone in the dark is what I can’t figure it out.

Now that we know that Connor was basically a ghost of himself for weeks at a time I can’t help but laugh at the people that were blaming him for the losses. Remember when Spec wrote about Connor’s turnovers being to blame for a loss despite the fact that he had a three point night? At the time, I thought the idea of blaming the team’s best player for a loss was ridiculous and it seems even more absurd now that we know what he was going through. Not to mention, a quick look at the NHL’s turnover leaders shows that Connor McDavid isn’t even in the top 50. As of right now, Kris Russell is the Oilers’ turnover leader (Lucic is 2nd) but it was Connor that took the heat? Give me a break.

I don’t know what it is about hockey coverage in this market but it always seems to be the star players that take the most flack in the press and that’s confusing to me. Blaming the guy that throws the team on his back on a nightly basis while giving lesser players a pass is bonkers and lazy. I know that the Edmonton media loves blue collar guys but ignoring their mistakes to pill on the skilled guys doesn’t make sense to me. It’s even worse now that we know Connor was trying to drag this wheelless trailer along while also recovering from every disease under the sun. If anything, the story should be about why Connor doesn’t get enough help from everybody else on the team and why management banks on him so much that they downgrade on skill year after year.

I know this has nothing to do with anything but I couldn’t stop laughing at the face Puljujarvi is making in the screen shot above. That dude is so entertaining to look at that I just can’t get enough. I mean, what’s not to love about him? He has a certain joie de vivre that I haven’t seen since Yakupov and I really appreciate it. I just hope that life in the NHL and the constant scrutiny that comes with playing in a market like Edmonton won’t beat that out of him. Like Depeche Mode once said, I just can’t get enough. You do you, Jesse. I’m loving every minute of it.