Connor McDavid was knocked into the far post by Anaheim Ducks defenseman Drew Helleson midway through the first period on Thursday, stayed down for a moment, got up and went looking for him. Afterwards he explained why.
“Obviously it’s a play that is a little sensitive to me. Those are plays that I’ve been really, really hurt on before,” McDavid said. “Going into the end wall, going into the net. Those type of plays I find to be dangerous, and obviously I didn’t love it.”
A large portion of the hockey internet had an immediate answer for him.
“You drive the net at full speed and just expect teams to allow you to do that? Cry harder,” one wrote.
“This is crazy to me, because he drives the net at 300 miles an hour. What’s a defender supposed to do?” asked another.
“What a s*** take. If you are going to go as fast as you can and take it straight to the net you can’t expect defenses to just allow it to happen without contact. This is hockey, not basketball,” a third said.
Connor McDavid this season:
| Games | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 10 | 34 | 44 |
Has Connor McDavid been injured on a hit like this before?
Mark Giordano drove him into the net in the final game of the 2018-19 season and McDavid wrecked his knee, which cost him most of that summer. Something similar happened during his rookie year. Both are the reason he reacted on Thursday the way he did.
“Like the Giordano play and the play in my rookie year, you’re going Mach 1 into the net, and those are dangerous plays in my opinion and a situation I find myself a lot in,” McDavid said. “It’s obviously close to home for me.”
He said something else in the same availability, which is the part being left out of the arguments on both sides.
“I’m not expecting him to give me a free pass. He makes his decision, I make my decision, that’s just the way it is,” he told reporters. “You’re going to hit me like that and there’s going to be a response, that’s just the way it is.”
His point was about the rulebook rather than the hit.
“I wish that we treated the net like we treat the end wall. If I do that to him, go Mach 1 into the end wall, it’s a five-game suspension and everything like that,” he said. “The net is just as dangerous in my opinion. With the goalie there, the post there, it’s just as dangerous.”
He also had something to say about how he’s generally perceived.
“I think people have me pegged as some type of robot, but I’ve got feelings and emotions too. When that comes out it can rattle a game up,” McDavid said.
Helleson took no penalty for the hit. Vasily Podkolzin was ejected for the fight that followed, a decision McDavid said he had never seen made before, and Anaheim scored on the five-minute power play on their way to a 5-4 win.
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