Connor McDavid has a hearing on Monday for his crosscheck on Connor Garland late in Saturday’s 3-2 loss in Vancouver. Tyler Myers also has a hearing for crosschecking Evan Bouchard during the same sequence. I can’t recall the last time two players had hearings with the NHL’s department of Player Safety from the same skirmish, but due to infractions on different players.
Both players will get suspended, it is just a matter of how many games. The Oilers and Canucks play again on Thursday, which would be the second game this week for both teams, and I’d guess both will get at least two games. You can’t crosscheck a player in the face, regardless of what occurred prior.
And here is Myers’s stickwork on Bouchard.
Both were blatant crosschecks to the face/head. Both will be suspended, but the NHL needs to take a long inward look and realize they are allowing their star players to take more punishment with fewer penalties being called. The sad part is we’ve seen this movie before. Mario Lemieux and Brett Hull ripped the NHL in the 1990s for the insistence on allowing superstars to get held, hooked and slashed without penalty.
Today’s game isn’t at that level of obstruction, but why there was no call on Garland on that play illustrates the issue in today’s game. The NHL is allowing obstruction to seep back in the game.
This season teams are averaging 2.80 PP opportunities per game. That is the lowest in NHL history since they started tracking it back in 1963-64.
The number of power plays per game has been on a steady decline in the salary cap era. Even in the late 1990s early 2000s, when they allowed too much holding, teams still had more power plays than today.
Here is a look at PPO per game since 2006. I list the team with the most, the middle-ranked team and team with fewest PP chances/game.
Year
Most PPO
Mid PPO
Fewest PPO
AVG
2006
6.60
5.91
5.01
5.85
2007
5.65
4.89
4.11
4.85
2008
5.12
4.32
3.61
4.28
2009
4.56
4.22
3.74
4.16
2010
4.05
3.77
3.18
3.71
2011
4.22
3.54
2.89
3.54
2012
4.09
3.29
2.72
3.31
2013
4.23
3.40
2.54
3.32
2014
3.59
3.30
2.8
3.27
2015
3.59
3.01
2.59
3.06
2016
3.66
3.13
2.76
3.11
2017
3.38
2.99
2.57
2.99
2018
3.61
3.02
2.56
3.04
2019
3.49
2.88
2.57
2.92
2020
3.44
3.03
2.47
2.97
2021
3.70
2.86
2.09
2.89
2022
3.40
2.91
2.46
2.89
2023
3.73
3.07
2.52
3.07
2024
3.45
3.02
2.54
3.02
2025
3.20
2.85
2.28
2.80
I don’t buy for one moment today’s players are infinitely more disciplined. The game is faster than ever before, but magically players don’t commit infractions?
Just look at the reduction in penalties drawn from the best players in the game.
McDavid drew 50 penalties in 2022, 45 in 2023, 41 in 2024 and 14 so far this season.
Nathan MacKinnon has gone from 39 in 2022 to 33 in 2023, 32 in 2024 and 13 this year.
They are the two most explosive players in the league. No one attacks with more speed than those two, yet McDavid is on pace to draw 25 penalties and MacKinnon 22.
I call bullshit. The league has, once again, decided they would rather reward its less-skilled players and allow them to hook, hold and obstruct their star players.
Make it make sense.
The NFL is the most successful league in North America. Look what they’ve done the past few seasons. They put in rules to encourage more offense, and they protect their quarterbacks. Some would say they have gone a bit too far protecting their most important position, but they want those players playing and driving the show.
The NHL is the opposite, and until Gary Bettman leaves as Commissioner it won’t change. He will tell you there is nothing wrong with the NHL. Everything is great, at least until six months before a CBA is set to expire, then magically there might be issues. That has been his calling card for years.
Nov 30, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) during the third period against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

PLAYERS NEED TO TAKE A STAND…

Mario Lemieux and Brett Hull voiced their concerns in the late 1990s. Lemieux left the game due to injury, but also because he was so frustrated with all the BS holding, hooking and obstruction the league allowed. It is time today’s superstars band together and take a stand.
The NHLPA has a bigger voice than they realize. They need all their top players to say something. McDavid, MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, David Pastrnak, Mikko Rantanen, Mitch Marner, Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski and others.
Make a plan. Stand up together and on the same day voice their concern. I don’t want to hear it “Isn’t the hockey way to complain.” It isn’t a complaint, it is pointing out a truth. The NHL has opted to ignore the rulebook. Just call the rules by the book. Isn’t that why you have a rulebook?
And please, don’t tell me fans will be turned off because there are too many power plays. People didn’t shut off their TVs in 2006 when teams averaged 5.85 PPO/game.
And don’t tell me refs don’t want to decide the game, so they don’t call close calls. By not calling actual penalties, they are potentially deciding games, by not putting a team shorthanded.
McDavid earned his upcoming suspension. However, two things can be true simultaneously, and while he deserves to sit, he also deserves the right to showcase his skill and not have to fight through more stickwork and holding than the rest of the league. It isn’t even asking for preferential treatment for the star players. It is simply calling the damn rulebook.
MacKinnon, McDavid, Draisaitl and other elite players have the puck the most. They make the most plays and they have defenders trying to slow them down the most.
It is time the NHL changes its mindset. McDavid’s suspension isn’t the main issue — it’s the lack of league-wide calls on star players.