Connor McDavid made some comments following the Oilers’ loss to the Canucks, which in truth have been misconstrued by media and fans alike.
The Edmonton Oilers were understandably embarrassed by Wednesday night’s 8-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. As such, it was a clearly frustrated Connor McDavid who spoke to the media postgame.
McDavid had plenty to say, but some of his comments received particular focus. More specifically, when he said:
"“They made a few decisions in the third period that I thought were interesting. Throwing the backup goalie in with 10 minutes left, I’ve not seen that. It’s not like (Casey) DeSmith is an (emergency backup goalies), so I thought that was interesting. And, yeah, anytime you roll out the first power play unit (is) not ideal, but never a situation you want to be in, and obviously we don’t like that.”"
This led to headlines claiming McDavid was calling out the Canucks and taking shots at their head coach, Rick Tocchet. In addition, there were plenty of comments accusing the Oilers superstar of sour grapes and whining.
The things is though, we genuinely believe the four-time Ted Lindsay Award winner’s comments were taken out of context, at least to a certain extent. Especially when he spoke about the first power play unit being used when the game was clearly out of reach.
Yes McDavid did say it was not ideal and never a situation you want to be in, but of course it wasn’t! There was every chance he was just referring to the fact his team were being thoroughly beaten, i.e. a position you never want to be on the receiving end of.
As for obviously not liking it, again why would the six-time All-Star like it? His team was playing poorly and being humiliated on national television.
Want your voice heard? Join the Oil On Whyte team!
In terms of McDavid’s comments about the goaltender change, it was arguably more a case of being perplexed, alluding to not being fully unaware of what influenced the decision. More specifically, as Tocchet explained, Thatcher Demko was dealing with the flu and had actually thrown up in his mask shortly before being removed from the game.
We have no doubt the Oilers superstar would have had a different response if he was aware of the circumstances. Regardless, he was again just reacting to the embarrassment he was feeling about the team’s overall poor performance in Vancouver.
In addition, McDavid fully appreciates the Canucks have every right to do whatever they want to. It was the Oilers’ fault for putting themselves in such a dire situation in the first place.
Certainly, the five-time Art Ross Trophy winner has been on the positive side of blowouts plenty of times. Heck, just last season alone, he helped the Oilers win regular season games by scorelines such as 8-2, 7-2 (twice), 6-2, 7-1, 7-3, 6-0 and 6-1.
Ultimately, this was just about an irritated player who was more unhappy with himself and his team rather than the opposition. There was nothing wrong with what Connor McDavid said, with his comments being blown out of proportion on a tough night for everyone concerned with the Oilers.