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Edmonton Oilers

Oilers Decide, McDavid Will Sit. Is McDavid Upset?

The Edmonton Oilers are choosing to sit Connor McDavid on Saturday despite his desire to play.

The Edmonton Oilers have announced that Connor McDavid will not play tonight in the ‘Battle of Alberta’ that will see the Calgary Flames host the Oilers on Saturday. This report comes after it was revealed McDavid asked to play.

Considering the Oilers are keeping their promise of playing it slow with McDavid’s injury rehab, this is good news from the perspective of a lot of fans. It’s good to hear McDavid is well enough to play and wants to get in the game, but it’s also good he’s being held back and the organization isn’t afraid to make the call and do what they feel is best long-term for the team.

The news comes from Oilers reporter Jim Matheson who said Dave Tippett told him directly McDavid is being kept out of the lineup. McDavid gets it.

https://twitter.com/nhlbymatty/status/1178001734154649602?s=21

Being competitive is great, being smart is better.

There’s not much McDavid needs to do in preseason that won’t mean more when the regular season begins. No, he hasn’t been acutely precise when it comes to every play, but McDavid at 80 percent is better than 80 percent of the league at full capacity. One or two games into the real schedule and McDavid will have it worked out. At the same time, the Oilers captain has already played one, maybe two more games in the preseason than anyone expected.

It wasn’t long ago Oilers GM said McDavid might not play any early games. If he did, maybe one. Having him play three games seems excessive and unnecessary.

In the end, even if McDavid is a bit miffed having to watch from the press box, he’s not the kind of player to get bent out of shape about something like this. And, if fans in Toronto or other cities try to use this as fodder to suggest McDavid would want out or be at odds with the franchise, they’re not even remotely understand how little an issue this is in the first place.

Next: Anton Burdasov Released By Oilers From PTO

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