The Conference Finals are over, the world’s worst Stanley Cup Final matchup is set, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking about the Edmonton Oilers. On this week’s edition of Random Thoughts, I dove into Evan Bouchard’s injury at the World Championships, a wild Connor McDavid jersey auction, and offered my take on Kelly McCrimmon’s faux outrage about the Bruce Cassidy situation.

After seeing Evan Bouchard get injured at the Worlds yesterday, there were a bunch of Oilers fans who rightfully wondered whether it’s even worth allowing your stars to participate in a tournament like that. I know it’s a bigger thing in Europe, but over here, there aren’t many folks who get locked in. But the thing about Evan Bouchard playing at the Worlds is that every Team Canada at-bat matters for a guy like Bouch when he was left off the Olympic roster back in February. I’m not suggesting he went over there for some kind of revenge tour, but I do think participating at the Worlds gives him a chance to build his resume and remind Hockey Canada what he can do. Before getting his bell rung, Bouchard amassed six points in eight games, showed elite puck movement, and acted as a weapon on Canada’s back end regardless of what situation was playing out. Whether the decision-makers needed the reminder that he’s pretty damned good or not, Bouchard was putting together the kind of tournament that should only help his case the next time Olympic conversations start up again.

And seeing Bouchard have some success over there was exactly what makes the way it ended so annoying. Not only was the hit a scary and reckless one, but he took one of the most electric players to watch out of the tournament and could have seriously hurt him. Bouchard was doing his thing, and then Ryan Lindgren catches him high with a dirty hit that was as devastating as it was needless. And when you mix this hit in with the the report after the playoffs that Bouchard may have been dealing with a concussion during Round 1 against Anaheim, and it’s easy to get a little twitchy about another head injury for one of the Oilers’ most important players. The good news is that Stan Bowman said Bouchard is doing well, and there’s a full summer before training camp, so hopefully this ends up being nothing more than a crappy ending to what was shaping up to be a strong tournament. Still, for a guy trying to keep building his national-team case, that’s a brutal way to get punted from the story.

When the Oilers are out of the playoffs, and there’s nothing going on, you get the time and space to have your attention taken over by random things. For me, part of that extra time has been consumed by the wild Connor McDavid game-worn jersey auction that’s been happening over the last little while. And what did I learn? Sometimes sports memorabilia exists in a completely different economy than the one the rest of us live in, and this Connor jersey auction is a prime example. At Nation HQ, we’d been keeping an eye on this thing for a minute, and now that it’s finally closed, the unsigned jersey McDavid wore in Game 5 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final against the Panthers went for $52,500 USD ($~72400 CAD). Insanity. Fifty-two Gs for a jersey Connor wore once, was washed, and is not even autographed. I get that it’s McDavid, a jersey from the Cup Final, has the patch, the letter of authenticity, and all the other little details that make collectors swoon, but even knowing all of that, my brain keeps bouncing between “cool piece of Oilers history” and “that is an insane amount of money to spend on a shirt.”

Meanwhile, this auction was going on with the price climbing into used-truck territory, and I was probably doing something important like scouring flyers to see if my beloved Casa Di Mama frozen pizzas are finally back under six bucks. That absurdity is the part that makes me laugh. Somewhere out there, there was a small handful of rich dudes in a financial knife fight over Connor McDavid’s laundry, and we’re over here wondering how the hell it now costs $80 to fill up our cars instead of the $45-50 it was not so long ago. There are just parties happening out there that none of us will get invited to, you know? And that’s not me disrespecting the winner, either. If you’ve got that vastly overpriced McDavid jersey money, then why wouldn’t you go and swing that bank account around on wildly overpriced merch from a losing season? I just hope that thing goes into some kind of bulletproof display case or something, because for $52,500, I’d be nervous about even letting my own shadow touch it. Either way, enjoy the expensive shirt, sir. I’m sure there’s some businessy dark arts that make all this make sense.

Speaking of NHL business that makes me laugh, Kelly McCrimmon being annoyed about the Bruce Cassidy situation becoming a story is very funny to me. A couple of days ago, McCrimmon went on OverDrive and said, “It’s only news because Edmonton leaked it,” which is one of those lines that made me roll my eyes out of my head and think, sure, sure, Kelly. Accusing the Oilers of leaking the Cassidy situation is definitely the issue here. It’s not that the Golden Knights are holding a fired coach hostage while he wants to go work somewhere else. It’s not that Cassidy is clearly annoyed by the situation, even going on Spittin Chiclets to talk about how bummed out he is. It’s not that the whole thing looks stupid because a guy you fired can’t go look for another job. Nope. The real crime for Kelly McCrimmon is that he keeps getting asked about it.

What makes this whole thing ridiculous to me is that McCrimmon is pretending he doesn’t want to talk about Bruce Cassidy, all while booking himself on some of the biggest radio shows in the country to talk about the thing he’s annoyed people are talking about. “Don’t ask me about Bruce Cassidy, but sure, I’ll take the appearance fee for your 15-minute hit.” Buddy, you can’t complain about the fire you started while standing there with a can of gas and a Zippo. Don’t blame the Oilers. Stop with the “we’re just focused on the playoffs nonsense.” If this story was actually supposed to go away, hopping on national radio to explain how unfair it is that people keep talking about Cassidy when you’re actively discussing taking interviews feels like an interesting choice. I get that McCrimmon works for the Golden Knights, and his job is to protect their interests, but let’s not dress this thing up like Vegas is being dragged into the town square against its will. Cassidy wants to coach, but Vegas still controls the contract, yet McCrimmon is mad that everyone in the interviews he’s accepting keeps asking him how this makes sense.