EDMONTON — Of all the goals set by or for Connor McDavid this season, likely the most unattainable one has been to just fit into the team and be one of the guys.
When you haven’t played a National Hockey League game yet and they’re already moving your post-practice interview session to an adjoining dressing room, there’s no mixing in as just another rookie.
But there he was on Monday, meeting the media for the first time since breaking his collarbone on Nov. 3 versus the Philadelphia Flyers, trying to walk the line when the question came: “Take us through the hit?”
“I was coming down the left side and got a shot off, and just lost a little bit of my footing and went into the boards with a couple of guys. I had a lot of weight coming in behind me and I guess that’s all that takes,” he said. “You could definitely feel that something wasn’t right.”
Was it a dirty play?
“I don’t want to touch too much on that,” he said carefully. “I know there has been a little debate on whether it was or not.”
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Some very high profile hockey people have stated their feeling that the Flyers two defencemen — Brandon Manning and Michael Del Zotto — somehow meant to injure McDavid on the play. To this hockey writer, that view is absurd, but McDavid is mature enough to know that being dismissive of that opinion will pit him against those who hold that view.
So, he skated around the topic Monday, like he has so many flat-footed defencemen. “Anytime three guys go into the boards at that kind of speed, something bad is bound to happen,” he said. “I guess I kind of had the brunt of it, I guess I was the guy falling into the boards and I got the worst of it obviously. That stuff happens.”
McDavid isn’t wearing a sling, and admitted Monday afternoon, “I did upper body today in the gym, and that gives you an idea of how it is feeling. It’s just a matter of letting it heal.”
The Oilers original warning that he could be out four months was always a bit of a ruse, by these eyes, to keep the pressure off of their young prodigy while he healed at his own pace. All have agreed that there was no structural damage, no soft tissue damage, and that the surgery to screw in a healing plate went very well.
It wouldn’t surprise if McDavid played a game in early January after a two-month break, though there will be no rushing McDavid back into a lineup that should be long eliminated from playoff contention by then.
As disappointing as the McDavid injury was here in Edmonton, that it came amid a crippling run of injuries has left the Oilers once again teetering on irrelevancy prior to the Grey Cup game. Everything about this Oilers team is better under new head coach Todd McLellan, but of late they’ve gone into games without five or more of their starting 18 players — and this team is simply not good enough, not deep enough to handle that.
Edmonton played in Los Angeles Saturday minus its top two centres — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (flu) and McDavid — while also missing defenceman Justin Schultz (back) and a coupe other regulars. They played the Kings hard, erasing a pair of two-goal deficits and tying the game at 15:10 of the third period.
Alas, L.A. scored a power-play goal at 18:23 and the Oilers left town with a moral victory, something they’ve had plenty of in this town.
“It’s simple: We have to prevent one or two mistakes a night, but we’ve been saying that for a while,” admitted head coach Todd McLellan, who knows that having a point-per-game player like McDavid back in his lineup wouldn’t hurt either.
Whenever that might occur.
“When I have seen him, he’s actually (been) fairly upbeat,” McLellan said. “I think … he feels a little bit better than he thought he might. He’s bored, which 18-year-olds can be when he’s not playing hockey and the team is away. But he’s got a great mindset right now, and the mind heals the body. So he’s off to a great start.”
McDavid was scheduled to see his surgeon for a follow-up on Tuesday. From there, we may have a better idea when he can get skates on again.
“I think the main part is just getting back to 100 per cent,” he said. “If there is any positive to it, it’s a bone and I can heal. It’s not like it’s a separated shoulder or torn labrum or anything like that. Bones heal, and I just have to wait for it to get 100 per cent.
“They tested my elbow when I was under and it was all good and they did some X-rays on my shoulder and that was fine as well,” he said. “I was pretty confident it was just the collarbone. I guess if there is any silver lining in all of this, was that it was just the bone.”
Silver linings. They can’t stomach many more of those in Edmonton.
