McDavid's salty postgame Canucks criticism didn't make much sense

@EdmontonOilers/X

Connor McDavid’s comments directed towards head coach Rick Tocchet and the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night didn’t make much sense at all.

The superstar centre is upset the Canucks didn’t take their foot off the gas in their dominant win over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.

But wait, he was also angry that the Canucks did loosen up, switching starting goaltender Thatcher Demko for backup Casey DeSmith in the third period.

He bemoaned the fact that the Canucks switched out their starting goaltender — not knowing about Demko’s illness, to be fair — while also complaining that they kept their first power play unit on the ice late in the game.

While McDavid’s comments don’t make much sense, they are laying the foundation for what should be a very exciting rematch on Saturday night.

McDavid’s hypocritical goalie take

As mentioned, McDavid was not happy that the Canucks swapped in DeSmith for Demko during the third period. While it was later revealed that Demko was ill, that is not something that anyone knew at the time.

McDavid implied that it was disrespectful for the Canucks to pull their goalie while up by so much.

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

The emergency backup situation that McDavid is referencing is when the Oilers put 25-year-old University of Alberta goalie Matt Berlin into a game for 2:26 against the Chicago Blackhawks last season. McDavid and the Oilers players were behind the move to get Berlin game action, who entered with a four-goal lead.

“Of course, we don’t want to disrespect the Hawks. That’s obviously our first thought,” McDavid said at the time. “[Berlin is] a young kid and you never know where his path could go. Maybe we’ll see him in the league one day as well, but for today, he’s playing in the NHL.”

Even if Demko had not been sick, is putting in your backup any more disrespectful than putting in a college goalie? It’s great that McDavid wanted to create a special memory for Berlin, but acting like that isn’t “breaking the code” or being disrespectful is ridiculous.

Canucks’ power play usage irks McDavid

McDavid also seemed to take issue with the Canucks rolling out their first-unit power play during the third period while up by multiple goals, saying, “We don’t like that.”

“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.”

The Canucks would eventually start rolling lines during their last few power plays, yet that still wasn’t enough to seemingly satisfy McDavid.

The final power play that the Canucks iced their first unit for came just over six minutes into the third period. The score was 6-1 at that point. While not likely, an Oilers comeback was still possible. With McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the roster, scoring five goals in 14 minutes is not out of the question.

If McDavid doesn’t want the Canucks to keep their foot on the gas when up by a large margin, something that contradicts his criticism of the goalie switch, he should ensure that the Oilers don’t fall behind by so many goals.

All of these extra dramatics should make the Saturday night game that much more fun to watch. The puck drops for that game at 7 pm PT at Rogers Place in Edmonton as McDavid and the Oilers look for revenge after the 8-1 shellacking on Wednesday night.

You might also like: