Make no mistake, what transpired at the end of Saturday night’s game was ugly.

Cross-checks to the head and neck, no matter the reason for it, are more than deserving of supplemental discipline. That’s what is expected to come the way of Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and Vancouver Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers after they each laid cross-checks to the head of opposing players late in Saturday’s game between the two teams.

But not all cross-checks are created equal.

In the case of McDavid’s, his stemmed from a place of frustration. With there being less than 20 seconds in the game and his Oilers down a goal, McDavid was trying to create offence, when Canucks winger Conor Garland knocked him off the puck, and held him for nearly 15 seconds. At first, McDavid was on top with Garland appearing to hold McDavid’s arm, keeping him down, then as McDavid got up, Garland grabbed hold again, knocking him down.

When McDavid finally got some space, he skated towards Garland, laying a cross-check to the side of his head. There’s no denying this is worthy of suspension, and while McDavid may have been lucky to escape discipline for his elbow on Minnesota Wild winger Marcus Johansson, it’s very likely he won’t be here.

For as much as McDavid does deserve supplemental discipline, Myers deserves it even more. His involvement in the mess that was started at the same time McDavid laid his cross-check on Garland.

Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard had gone to grab a puck along the wall to keep it alive as the final seconds ticked away, and Myers laid a hit on him. The latter didn’t even see McDavid’s cross-check, but right after the hit, turned and slashed at Bouchard. The Oilers defenceman skated towards Myers, slowly starting to raise his hands up as he approached before Myers quickly laid a fully extended cross-check to Bouchard’s face.

It wasn’t immediately caught on the broadcast given the other fracas going on, but at the very least, McDavid’s cross-check came from a place of frustration. Where was Myers’ from? On the surface, it looks like he was trying to get a pound of flesh, despite not likely seeing what had even occurred. Though Bouchard did receive a slashing penalty on the play, he didn’t seem to do anything to deserve it, nor did he do anything to deserve the cross-check to the face.

McDavid could be considered a repeat offender under the guise of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. He was suspended for two games in 2019 for an illegal check to the head of New York Islanders defenceman Nick Leddy, and fined $5,000 in 2021 for an elbow to Montreal Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Myers has seen similar supplemental discipline, suspended in 2014 for one game for an illegal check to the head, and fined in January 2024 for an elbow.

The simple, cut-and-dry answer in all of this is that the referees missed the call on Garland. If his admitted clutching and grabbing of McDavid is penalized with a hand in the air, when he gets up and can see one of the referees behind the Canucks goal line, he likely doesn’t retaliate the way he does — let alone the fact that since the Oilers had the puck at the time, they could’ve quickly given it to a Canucks player to take advantage of the final seconds left with an extra man advantage.

It’s all in the hands of player safety at this point, who should hand out one-game suspensions to both McDavid and Myers, call it a day and let them both be in the lineup Thursday when these two teams meet again for the final time this season. Despite that, Myers in reality, is deserving of longer suspension than McDavid.

Either way, Saturday’s game ended far from how the Oilers would’ve wanted it to, once again trailing early and needing to push to come back. While things were deadlocked through the halfway mark of the first frame, with just over five minutes left in the first period, the Canucks went on the power play, with a Quinn Hughes shot pinballing off Ekholm and into the Oilers net. Vancouver extended their lead with another pair of goals in short order, as Danton Heinen and Hughes again made it 3-0.

Draisaitl would respond for the Oilers in the second period scoring a pair of his own with short-angle goals, but the comeback wouldn’t be in Edmonton’s cards. The game caps off a busy start to the 2025 year for the Oilers, who have effectively been travelling all month. What was an eight-game road trip with one home game sandwiched in the middle saw Edmonton go 6-2, securing wins over the Seattle Kraken, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche, dropping games to the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Canucks.

Edmonton’s January continues Tuesday — with or without McDavid — as the team returns home to face the Washington Capitals.

Then, on Thursday night, the Oilers and Canucks meet at Rogers Place to close out their three-game season series.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.