McDavid knows how to take a hit
‘He can handle it, he gets up and he’s smiling. That’s a good sign for our team’
Objects may be closer than they appear in the rear-view mirror as Connor McDavid found out when hockey’s most immovable object, Zdeno Chara, was closing in for a smack-down Sunday.
Predictably, the Edmonton Oilers star wound up on the seat of his pants.
“He’s 6’9.” He’s going to go down as one of the toughest guys to play the game,” McDavid said of the towering Boston Bruins’ defenceman and captain, accustomed to being the No. 1 target on the other team’s pre-game scouting report. “Not much I could do. Just get back up.”
McDavid, who had two assists in the game, wasn’t backing down and wasn’t going away.
“He can handle it, he gets up and he’s smiling. That’s a good sign for our team,” said Patrick Maroon, who went over to chat with Chara after the big jolt.
It’s an overlooked part of the 20-year-old McDavid’s skill-set. He’s not a crier or a whiner. He digs in.
“That’s Connor. I didn’t even think twice about it,” said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan. “I’m actually surprised you asked the question because he competes every night against size, tenacity, checkers, physical players and obviously, (Chara) is one of the best who’s played the game in a shutdown role.
“He’s in the way because there’s so much of him and he’s a specimen when it comes to physicality. He can check you from three feet away and still leverage you. It’s what he’s made a living doing and Boston’s won a lot of games because of him playing that way. He continues to do it at a later part of his career. But Connor did a very nice job against him.”
McDavid had double the trouble but, in the end, double the fun after the Oilers’ 4-2 win Sunday, taking faceoffs against Patrice Bergeron, one of only two players to win the Selke award four times — 1970s and ’80s Montreal Canadiens stalwart Bob Gainey is the other — and the blot-out-the-sun Chara, who seemed in an exceedingly grouchy mood at Boston’s TD Garden.
Maroon did get into Chara’s space after the hit, which drew a roughing penalty, but it was only a verbal exchange. He fought the 260-pounder last year, and it was an education.
He’s 6’9.” He’s going to go down as one of the toughest guys to play the game. Not much I could do. Just get back up.
“I wasn’t fighting him again. If we didn’t have the power play, I might have said maybe, but …”
“After he pumped my head last time, I didn’t want to feel bad for another month.”
It seemed like Chara was more ornery than usual against McDavid.
“You’ll see that more against top pairing defenceman, more people getting in Connor’s face, trying to get him frustrated,” said Maroon. “He’s the best player in the league for a reason, and I hate to say it, but he’ll see the best D every night. But Chara is more physical.”
As much as Chara has his way with just about everyone — retired tough guy Jody Shelley says most fights against him end the same way, with the other guy folded like an accordion and put to the ice — the Oilers were, by far, the more aggressive team. Their bigger players such as Maroon and Milan Lucic were very effective, same as Leon Draisaitl, who beat them up on the scoresheet.
“I enjoy playing against big, heavy teams, when their D, and big Chara, get in my face,” said Maroon. “It’s more my style, protecting pucks more. I thought I got back more to my style against Boston.”
He also scored against the Bruins, like he pretty much does every game he faces them. Maroon has scored seven goals in the eight games he’s played against Boston.
He had a hat-trick in Boston and two in a rout at Rogers Place last year.
He ripped one past Tuukka Rask to tie the game Sunday, coming off the bench to take Zack Kassian’s nice saucer feed.
ON THE BENCH: Oilers forward Ryan Strome will be playing against younger brother Dylan after the Arizona Coyotes called him up from their American Hockey League farm club, where he’s second in league scoring.