from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,
Connor McDavid may be the best player on the planet, but good people do bad things sometimes, even when the stars aren’t staring at a full moon.
So, when the Edmonton Oilers captain was told he had a hearing with the NHL’s Player Safety, he probably guessed he was going to get more that a stern talking-to after his shoulder hit to the head of New York Islanders defenceman Nick Leddy.
McDavid, with only 88 career PIMs and never anything more than a two-minute minor through 267 games over four years, was handed a two-game suspension.
The Player Safety folks were caught in an untenable situation. McDavid may be an all-world player but they couldn’t just give him a fine, not if they’re trying to go hard on hits to the head.
They already gave the equally squeaky-clean San Jose defenceman, Erik Karlsson, two games for hitting L.A.’s Austin Wagner in the head this season, so there was precedent for punishing a star. Two other high-profile players have gotten nailed too: Calgary captain Mark Giordano got two games for a knee on Mikko Koivu and Evgeni Malkin got one game for a high-stick on Michael Raffl.
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