Connor McDavid makes surprise return in Oilers win over St. Louis

My, how time flies.

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In a span of about six hours, Connor McDavid went from being ‘day-to-day,’ maybe as long as a week, to being declared good to go Wednesday night against the St. Louis Blues.

It was a welcome sight for the Edmonton Oilers, who are down so many players they were almost ready to bring somebody down from the cheap seats to fill the open roster spots.

And, as is usually the case when it comes to McDavid, everything went brilliantly. McDavid was all over it in his first game since March 20, flying at top speed, bringing out some of his classic footwork, assisting on Edmonton’s first two goals and then setting up Connor Brown for the 4-3 game winner with 20.4 seconds left in regulation.

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Classic McDavid.

“We kind of knew that he was itching to play, it was just a matter of if they let him,” said Brown, who popped two goals on McDavid’s wing and had no doubt the captain would return with a bang. “I knew he would be fine once he got into the lineup, we’ve been practising with him. Him at three-quarters speed is quicker than all of us. There was no concern about his ability.”


Most importantly, there didn’t appear to be any relapse of the groin injury that kept him out of the lineup for eight games. If there was any concern, that was it, but he came through without a hitch.

“You’re obviously worried about anything (going wrong), especially when you’ve had a couple of guys come in and tweak it a little bit and come out,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch, who watched Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm and Trent Frederic return from injures for a few games and then go back on the shelf.

“You can never be foolproof, you can’t know everything, but we felt he was in a position where he could play and not make it worse.”

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The Oilers were desperately short-staffed, still without Draisaitl, Ekholm and Frederic, they also had to go without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (illness) and defenceman Jake Walman, who was a late scratch.

They would have had to play two men short (11 forwards and five defencemen), so McDavid said he wanted to get in there and help.

“I think he’s the true embodiment of a captain,” said Brown. “Unselfish, hard working, leads by example.”

But Knoblauch made it clear that they weren’t throwing McDavid back into the lineup just because they were short of bodies. There were extensive discussions before he was finally given the green light.

“The plan was that we was going to play on Friday,” said Knoblauch. “But he really felt he was ready and wanted to play, especially with losing another centreman. He felt it was going to be as good as it was going to be. He really wanted to be in the lineup tonight.

“But he wouldn’t have been cleared just because he felt like playing. The medical staff obviously felt he was in good hands and not create any more damage.”

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But after a few shifts it was obvious he was ready to go.

“It was kind of a crazy day for our group with not knowing who is going and whatnot,” said McDavid, who logged 20:34 of ice time. “I was just happy to get in there. I thought it was an opportunity and I’d come in, take a couple shifts and if it’s no good, come off. I wasn’t taking anyone’s spot. Obviously, it felt good, no problems.

“I’ve been skating by myself. I don’t know how many tight turns I can do before you just gotta go. Obviously, coming back from injury sucks mentally for any athlete, but especially in hockey. It’s so unpredictable and there’s so many variables, things you can’t account for. It was nice to get that out of the way mentally.”

REFEREES BLOW IT BIG

Referees Carter Sandlak and Francis Charron pretty much assisted on the first St. Louis goal at 8:44 of the first period.

They both somehow missed Jeff Skinner getting punched in the back of the head and falling to the ice of a faceoff. So, instead of the play being blown dead, it continued and developed into a two-on-one for St. Louis.

When Robert Thomas grabbed Skinner’s jersey from behind and held him up while he was trying to get back on the back check, the referees missed it again and play continued. When Skinner complained about it, after St. Louis scored on the officiating blunders, the refs tripled down on their mistakes and gave him a 10-minute misconduct.

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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