The gloves are off in debate over McDavid

Oilers coach takes a shot at ‘whining’ Ducks

EDMONTON • Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan took that white glove Randy Carlyle was talking about and slapped the Anaheim Ducks coach upside the head with it.

“I thought we were supposed to be the team whining,” said McLellan, when asked Wednesday to respond to suggestions that referees are giving Connor McDavid preferential treatment in this second-round series with the Ducks.

“That threw me off a little bit.” Zing. Carlyle said before the series even began that he expected the Oilers to be complaining about Anaheim cheating in the faceoff circle, then followed that up Tuesday by saying you can’t touch McDavid these days without drawing a penalty.

“To me, it seems like there is something of a white-glove treatment for Mr. McDavid,” said Carlyle. “The restrictions on anybody touching him seem to be a little bit higher than normal.”

It was an assertion that was quickly laughed off by the Oilers.

“I think he’s just trying to get the attention of the referees,” said Milan Lucic. “In saying that, with his speed and his skill, he’s going to create penalties and power plays. It’s happened all year long. He gets a step on a guy, a guy takes him down, takes away a scoring chance, that’s usually a penalty in my eyes. I think the referees have done a good job with him.

“And on the other end, you can say the same thing the other way. I think they’ve gotten away with a lot. It’s part of the gamesmanship. We try not to let comments like that affect us too much.”

McDavid has enough to worry about on the ice that he isn’t going to be drawn into the war of words.

“It doesn’t affect me,” he said. “It’s his opinion and he has the right to have that. If that’s what he thinks, then that’s what he thinks.”

But no, McDavid doesn’t think he or anybody else out there is getting an easy ride from the officials.

“I think the ref is going to call the game the way he sees it,” McDavid said. “That’s what every ref would do. That’s how they’re taught to ref, that’s what they’re supposed to do. That’s their job. They’re going to call the game the way they see it.”

If McDavid is drawing a lot of calls, McLellan says it’s because he’s one of a few players in the league who are a step above everyone else and opponents have no choice but to step outside the rules to try and slow them down — and referees have no choice but to call it sometimes.

But if you’re keeping a ledger of times a superstar is fouled versus times penalties are called, the defenders come out way ahead.

“I think there are two or three, maybe four players in the league who have to play through the hooking, holding and mauling and they do a tremendous job of it,” said McLellan. “Yes, they do draw some penalties, but when all is said and done it could probably be double that amount.

“The white glove part of it, I think that’s questioning the integrity of the officiating, so I’m going to stay out of that.”

Early on in his career, McDavid wasn’t getting those calls. The hooking, holding and tripping went largely uncalled as it does for most rookies in the NHL. But McDavid never said a peep, showing respect and earning respect from the men who call the games.

“You have to earn their respect,” said McDavid. “I try not to do that. I try not to complain because it’s a hard game, things happen fast.”