Hockey parents thinking about watching Amazon Prime’s FACEOFF: Inside the NHL might want their young skaters to sit out at least part of one episode.
In a now-viral clip recorded in the moments after the Edmonton Oilers lost Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers 4-1, superstar and face of the league Connor McDavid tears into his teammates in an f-bomb-laden scolding.
“That’s not f—ing good enough. It’s the f—ing finals,” he says, removing gear alongside teammates in a hushed room.
“Dig the f— in, right f—ing now,” he screams at the top of his lungs.
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Such emotional outbursts in any sports locker room following a crucial game won’t shock any sports fan, but coming from McDavid — who talks about being “called boring” and “a robot’ during the series, adding “It’s tough, it’s challenging” — is certainly a removal from his normally calm public demeanour.
As ESPN senior NHL writer Greg Wyshynski pointed out on X, “More emotions in those 15 seconds than we might have seen from him in nine seasons.”
While the passion behind his sometimes wavering voice got a lot of fans chuffed — “I’d go to war for McDavid. Think one of the most important lessons for any young athlete to learn is that it’s cool to give a s–t,” one user named @Jordiebarstool wrote on X — others weren’t impressed.
McDavid haters suggested his voice doesn’t command attention and that he sounded as if he were about to cry.
“Think it’s the first time McDavid has ever tried yelling. Maybe the one part of his game that needs work,” hockey and pop culture YouTuber Pete Blackburn posted to X.
(Spoiler: the series does show McDavid weeping after the Game 7 loss in Florida, with teammate and long-time Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins consoling him as the Avett Brothers’ song If It’s the Beaches plays over the scene.)
Closer to home, Edmonton Journal hockey writer David Staples wrote that while such a tirade has no place on “minor hockey teams or for adult beer league,” McDavid’s timing was “perfect.”
“I’m glad to see McDavid has this kind of ferociousness in him. There’s no way he or his team would have almost won the Cup in Game Seven if he lacked it. Of course, there’s no way he would have become the player he is without that fire burning so bright in his head and heart.”
McDavid’s reputation for being bland was dealt a blow thanks to his wedding to interior designer Lauren Kyle in Muskoka, Ont., this summer.
In videos from the after-party, he’s seen dancing on teammate Zach Hyman’s shoulders and hanging in the DJ booth.
Overlaid text on the clip reads: “Connor McDavid finally beating the ‘boring hockey guy’ allegations.”
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Not just for Oil Country
The six-part series, which debuted Friday, isn’t solely dedicated to the Oilers and their near-historic but ultimately ill-fated run to the Cup final.
The first episode explores the rivalry between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins via in-depth looks at respective stars William Nylander and Davis Pastraňák. The series then shifts south of the border, looking at the lives of the Las Vegas Knights centre Jack Eichel and the Nashville Predators’ Filip Forsberg.
Episode 3 goes behind the scenes with Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman during the playoffs, and notorious Panthers pest Matthew Tkachuk. Episode 4 is all about captains — newly minted Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks, likely-outgoing Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche, and the New York Rangers’ Jacob Trouba, going into his junior year of wearing the C.
The final two episodes — Cup or Bust parts 1 and 2 — take viewers into the playoffs and are when McDavid’s verbal onslaught turns up.
A final note to parents on the new Prime show: While the viral clips, so far, are censored, the actual docu-series is not.
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