From the sounds of it, Connor McDavid didn’t think he stood a chance against suspension after his hearing kicked off for an illegal hit he made on New York Islanders defenceman Nick Leddy.
McDavid uncharacteristically hit Leddy to the head in a 4-3 shootout win against the Islanders on Thursday night, a game in which the first overall pick ultimately scored the game-winning shot. The next day he was forced to meet with the league’s player safety department where he was ultimately handed a two-game suspension. But from Connor’s standpoint, it seemed to be a “no questions asked” kind of deal in which he hardly had a chance to defend himself. He also expressed his feeling that he shouldn’t have been suspended in the first place.
Doesn’t sound like a happy camper.
Islanders head coach Barry Trotz revealed after the game that Leddy had cleared concussion protocol and was fine after the play. The desperate Oilers will now face the Anaheim Ducks and Nashville Predators without easily their best player. To give you some perspective, McJesus has contributed on 85 of Edmonton’s 166 goals this season.
That’s 51.2%!!!!
Some hockey fans are probably finding it a bit odd that McDavid received a longer suspension than Evgeni Malkin, who recently swung his stick at Michael Raffl’s head and missed his face by about a toe-nail. Malkin received just one game for the incident.
It’s going to be a longggggggg couple of games for the Oilers and their fans.
