Connor McDavid fires shots at Canucks coach Tocchet's late-game decisions

Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid was not happy with how the Vancouver Canucks handled themselves late in Wednesday night’s embarrassing 8-1 loss.

In a post-game media scrum, the league’s reigning MVP was asked about the Canucks sending out their top power-play unit in the third period despite holding a commanding lead.

"You get ready for the next one."

Connor McDavid on playing Vancouver again on Saturday night at @RogersPlace. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/Te62GqTgjW

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 12, 2023

McDavid obviously wasn’t very pleased with that decision.

“They made a few decisions in the third period that I thought were interesting,” said McDavid. “Anytime they roll out the first power-play unit, it’s not ideal, not a situation we wanna be in, and obviously we don’t like that.”

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It seemed like McDavid was also a bit upset with Vancouver’s decision to pull starter Thatcher Demko with 10 minutes to go in the game in favour of backup Casey DeSmith.

“Throwing the backup goalie in with 10 minutes left, I have not seen that,” continued McDavid. “It’s not like DeSmith is an [emergency backup goalie] or anything like that, so I thought that was interesting.”

McDavid may be referencing the time that the Oilers pulled Jack Campbell in the dying minutes of a game against Chicago last season to give emergency backup Matt Berlin a taste of NHL hockey.

While McDavid may have seen the goalie change as a bit of a slight against the Oilers, it did come out from Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet that Demko had thrown up in his mask shortly before being pulled from the game.

This was apparently due to a nasty case of the flu that Demko had fought all the way to that point of the game.

Edmonton’s frustration wasn’t limited to post-game comments. Both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were guilty of undisciplined penalties late in the game that helped the Canucks run up the score.

The animosity wasn’t reserved for the post-game scrums either, with fans from both teams breaking out into a fight in the crowd late in the game as well.

The bad blood between the two teams won’t have to simmer for too long as Vancouver will head to Edmonton on Saturday for a rematch.