The Edmonton Oilers found themselves facing a win-win scenario against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
Lose and it’s to the top team in the NHL, while missing your captain. Win, and you’ve just beaten the top team in the league, without your captain.
But only one of those scenarios was going to leave them alone in first place in the Pacific Division for the first time this season.
The big news coming into the game, of course, was Connor McDavid being forced to sit out the first of a three-game suspension after a 3-2 loss on the road to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday ended in all-out anarchy.
McDavid was trapped under Conor Garland for a full seven seconds as the third period wound down, before getting up and crosschecking the Canucks forward in the face after it became readily apparent the officiating crew wasn’t doing anything about the egregious interference against the league’s brightest superstar.
For the record, Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers got the same three-game suspension for crosschecking Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard moments later.
‘A little too much’
But for as much as McDavid will be missed this week, the numbers say the Oilers still boast the top centre in the league.
“I certainly think three games is a little too much for either side,” said Leon Draisaitl, who led the NHL with 33 goals in 46 games coming into Tuesday’s game. “But I guess we don’t overly care about having our best players in the league in the game, so I’ll leave it at that.”
McDavid has yet to speak publicly since the incident. And neither Bouchard nor Oilers GM Stan Bowman have been in any real rush to comment either.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch was asked Tuesday morning if he could provide his reaction to the three-game suspension.
“I don’t think I can,” was all he offered.
“I think it’s way too high,” said Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “But I don’t think me standing here and thinking stuff is going to help the situation.
“It’s just mind-blowing to me how he can come to three games, but that’s the decision they made and we’ll have to live with it.”
It’s not the first time the Oilers have been without their captain this season, going 2-1 in his absence dealing with an ankle injury at the end of October.
“These situations create a lot of excitement too for other guys because you know you’re going to rely on guys a little bit more than you usually do,” Draisaitl said. “And that creates a certain excitement for those individuals.
“Obviously, Connor takes on a lot of the offence for us, and in general his all-around game. But it’s a great opportunity for other guys.”
Whistles in their pockets
To Draisaitl’s point, the whole entire situation, from who crosschecked whom and for how many games worth, could have all been avoided had the officials not decided to simply put their whistles in their pocket in the final minute with the Oilers going on the all-out offensive to try and salvage a four-game win streak.
“That can be avoided. It doesn’t even need to get to whatever happened at the end of the game, right? That’s how I see it,” Draisaitl said. “That’s, to me, clearly a penalty. He’s trying to get back into the play. Connor doesn’t want to tangle with Garland in that situation, there’s 12 seconds left.
“We’re looking to score, we’re not looking to tangle with anybody. But I also know the game happens quick, the refs aren’t going to make the right call every single time, I understand that. But in that instance, I think that could have been avoided.”
Leaving things up to the players to sort out probably isn’t the best strategy, as we saw at the end of the game in Vancouver. Especially with the Canucks headed back to Edmonton on Thursday already for a rematch (7 p.m., Sportsnet West and Pacific).
Not that the Oilers will be trading in their hockey gloves for boxing gloves on their mission to earn a return trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.
“It was a scrum. Two guys are going to be out for it anyway,” Draisaitl said. “It’s two good teams that have played each other a lot lately looking to win a hockey game.
“So, I don’t think there’s overly much to it.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge