For the first time in his NHL career, Connor McDavid has been suspended.
The Edmonton Oilers star will sit two games (and lose $134,408.60) for an illegal hit to the head of New York Islanders defenseman Nick Leddy. McDavid would only receive a two-minute minor penalty for the hit in-game, which is significant because he avoided being ejection, thus opening the door for McDavid to score the 4-3 overtime game-winner on Thursday.
The Oilers aren’t mathematically eliminated from the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but they pretty much are from a logical standpoint. With that in mind, you can bet a lot of people are making jokes about McDavid wanting his suspension to go longer than two games.
Here’s the hit, along with the league’s explanation for the two-game suspension:
In a poll about the hit, 35.7-percent of PHT voters chose one game as the most appropriate suspension, while 25.43-percent voted no suspension at all. (Two games got 22.59 percent, while more than two received 16.27 percent.)
At the moment, it seems like Leddy should be OK, as he passed concussion protocol during the game. These things can change at times, however, so we’ll see.
In other grim Oilers news, it sounds like Jesse Puljujarvi might be at risk of missing the rest of the season with a lower-body injury. Also grim: that there’s sort of a hidden bright side that an injury might stop any trade from happening, essentially protecting the Oilers from themselves.
Dark times in Edmonton.
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.