Last night during Edmonton's victory over the Calgary Flames Connor McDavid took a knee on knee hit from defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. McDavid had the puck and was cutting to the middle of the ice. As McDavid tried to cut to his backhand, Weegar's knee caught McDavid's left knee causing him to fall to the ice. Thankfully both players were OK and remained in the game. McDavid even scored the game winning goal in the third period.
What might be a bigger story than the hit was the lack of response from the Oilers. No one on the Oilers went after Weegar after their star center was hit. Why wouldn't you stand up for your star player in that situation? How close can this team really be? If Edmonton makes the playoffs, teams will be targeting McDavid and the Oilers better learn how to respond. Perhaps team toughness is something the Oilers need to investigate. Not that long ago, they traded away tough guy Zach Kassian to Arizona. After last night's incident with Calgary, the Oilers must to a better job protecting their own. If they don't have someone in the lineup that will answer this call, Ken Holland had better start looking.
