The Department of Player Safety announced on Monday evening that Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and Vancouver Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers each received three-game suspensions for cross-checks.
Both of those occurred in the dying seconds of Saturday’s game between the two teams with different causes for each. McDavid took exception to Conor Garland knocking him off the puck and pinning him to the ice, which the captain opted to deliver a forceful cross-check when he got back up. In Myers’ case, he got into an altercation with Evan Bouchard which started with the former delivering a hit on the latter and then both got into a shoving match before Myers gave the cross-check.
McDavid and Myers each received match penalties on the play, and the DoPS noted in their ruling that both delivered dangerous cross-checks with the intent to hurt their opponent. As a result, neither will be available for the Oilers and Canucks rematch on Thursday which is bound to have plenty of fireworks given how things concluded on Saturday.
Suffice it to say that Twitter/X was ablaze when the suspensions were handed out. Here are some of the highlights:
Bob Stauffer was perhaps the most vocal about the suspension of anyone in Oilers’ media as he took exception to the NHL’s supposed lack of willingness to protect their stars. He backed it up with a stat that shows McDavid is way down the list of players who can draw penalties. The thinking is that McDavid should be able to draw more given his speed and elusiveness make it easy for opponents to try and hook or slash to slow him down.
Whether or not you agree with his view on the NHL’s lack of protecting their stars, that stat is quite shocking nonetheless.
All three things can be true: Garland should have been penalized for holding on the play, McDavid’s cross-check is a suspendable act no matter which way you slice it, and both teams have reasons to be upset after the altercation.
That is 100% not going to happen, but it will sure be fascinating the next time McDavid and Myers square off against each other.
You can understand the sentiment, similar to what Stauffer was talking about, but that’s a topic for another day.
I would pay to see what they would come up with.
Safe to say that this is a fair assessment of the plays in isolation. Both were cross-checks that targeted the opponent’s head, were delivered forcefully and were avoidable. It easily could have been more harsh but three games for both McDavid and Myers is about right.
There’s never a dull moment on Twitter/X!
The rematch between the two teams is set for Thursday in Edmonton, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. MST.