The second hardest thing in hockey is stepping into the NHL at 18. The hardest is stepping into the league and staying healthy for 82 games.
That aphorism comes to mind today while you watch replays of Connor McDavid being taken out into the boards by Philadelphia defenceman Michael Del Zotto and Brandon Manning. You might have thought that McDavid was doing the hard part already, leading the Edmonton Oilers in scoring, racking up a point a game, earning Rookie of the Month honours through the first weeks of the season and, really, living up to the most hype to greet a kid entering the league since Sidney Crosby came along 10 years ago.
The league is going to decide whether Del Zotto or Manning were reckless or negligent in taking out McDavid. If the play isn’t a blatant attempt to injure, it still looked at least worthy of a closer look.
The Flyers will say that McDavid lost an edge and that just raised the risk through no fault of the blueliners. That will get sorted out over the next few days.
Someone will be unhappy with the decision but a fine or a stint under suspension will pass and the hockey world will keep on spinning. Sadly, though, it will spin on without Connor McDavid who is now out for “months” with a broken left clavicle, according to team general manager Peter Chiarelli.
The race for the Calder Trophy has lost its early favorite and it now looks like the silverware is Jack Eichel’s to lose. Or Max Domi’s. Or Dylan Larkin’s. Or Artem Panarin.
Eighteen-year-olds who can step into the league are rare. You’ll note that those named above in the rejigged chase for the Calder are in fact 19 or older. (Eichel was a late ’96-birthday and blew out 19 candles the other day.)
When Sidney Crosby was runner-up to Alexander Ovechkin for Calder honours in the 2005-06 season, it supposedly was a stinging defeat, the air being let out of No. 87’s arrival. Some noted, of course, that Crosby managed to rack up 102 points, hardly a flat-lining number. The stats that most missed:
1. Ovechkin turned 20 before the season .
2. Crosby managed to play 81 NHL games before his 19th birthday.
To the latter point, the only other prominent 2005 draftee who was thrown into the fire directly out of the draft was Columbus’ Gilbert Brule, who suffered two pretty catastrophic injuries: first a fractured sternum when he was decked by Calgary’s Roman Hamrlik; then, after weeks on the sidelines, a broken leg in a game against Minnesota. Brule managed to play all of seven games that season.
A few kids come into the league straight out of the draft looking like physical beasts, but they often don’t last the full season. Rick Nash made it into 74 games, Ilya Kovalchuk 65. Those who are fleet and shifty didn’t manage to stay out of harm’s way any better.
McDavid’s teammate Taylor Hall matched Kovalchuk’s 65 games. Likewise another Oiler, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins didn’t make it to 80 games.
Now, not all of these kids rushing into the pros suffered injuries that were a byproduct of heavier hitting. Nugent-Hopkins, for one, wasn’t hit when he went down—he just took a fall. Still, the demands on a kid at 18, playing more games than he ever has before, skating against bigger and better players than he ever has before, put him at significant risk.
Trying to do more than you’ve done before is a sure way to invite accidents. That was even there for McDavid in the pre-season, when he was decked by Vancouver’s Jake Virtnanen in a rookie-tournament game.
If you look at the play that injured McDavid, you might think that he could have been as easily hurt in a major junior game on a similar play. Maybe. Then again, if he’s coming down on a 17-year-old defenceman you’d suspect the defender wouldn’t be able to lay a glove on him and would be chasing McDavid’s shadow. Or McDavid would just deke him out cleanly.
Against NHLers, against players he’d never seen before, McDavid had to try to do a bit more. And that’s how a kid can get easily and unfortunately crumpled, and likely his team’s playoff hopes with it.
Crosby managed to play in 81 games as a rookie, so he’ll trump McDavid on that count. Then again, that was coming out of the cancelled 2004-05 season, when the rulebook was rewritten, officiating overhauled and play on the ice wide open.
Crosby had more time and space. McDavid ran out of both when he hit the boards.