Call Outs, Stand Outs, and Shout Outs: Canucks Top Oilers in Game 3
May 13, 2024
Call Outs, Stand Outs, and Shout Outs: Oilers take Game 4 over the Canucks
May 15, 2024
May 13, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg
Tempers boiled over at the end of Game 3 between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night. Our very own Josh Boulton (@ToughCallPod) from the Tough Call Podcast offered this breakdown of the incident:
Connor McDavid and Carson Soucy were involved, and Nikita Zadorov came over to cross check McDavid from behind. Soucy decided to also cross check McDavid. McDavid was falling as Soucy delivered his cross check, which resulted in Soucy’s cross check hitting McDavid in the neck. If not for McDavid being in the process of falling down already, then Soucy’s cross check likely would’ve hit McDavid in the chest.
A lof of Canucks fans are saying that McDavid started the altercation with his two-handed slash on Soucy. McDavid absolutely did slash Soucy, but Boulton breaks down the slash in this video:
McDavid didn’t start this altercation. Soucy started it by pushing Zach Hyman and McDavid in rapid succession. McDavid’s response to being shoved was his two-handed slash, which was an escalation. Soucy then further escalated by slashing McDavid back. Soucy went on to escalate it even further by cross checking McDavid.
Soucy is not a victim here. Sure, the McDavid slash wasn’t right; but we see slashes like that a lot. It was a slash to a padded part of the body. That wasn’t a home run swing, but it was enough to let Soucy know that he was there and he wasn’t happy with the shove. That’s all that slash was, just a message saying “f*ck you.” Soucy responded in kind with his own two-handed slash to McDavid’s pants. I wouldn’t have been upset if McDavid had been fined, but those kinds of slashes are pretty common. If you’re going to fine McDavid for his slash, then Soucy shoud be fined too. Both slashes went unpunished, which is fine by me.
Soucy was given a one-game suspension for the cross check. It was absolutely worth a suspension because it was a predatory cross check above the shoulders that occurred outside of normal gameplay.
Let’s talk a bit about why all of this really happened though. It’s normal for a team to target the opposition’s best player. McDavid is the best player in the world, so the Canucks will be more than happy to take any opportunity to hit him. There’s more to this incident than just that though. McDavid got away with a hit from behind early in Game 3, so there was likely some frustration from the Canucks about that hit.
It goes back further than that though. McDavid got away with what should’ve been a double minor for high sticking Quinn Hughes in Game 2. No penalty was called even though Hughes was cut badly enough that the referees made him leave the ice to close up his cut.
It wasn’t just that though. No call was made on Darnell Nurse when he made this hit on Elias Pettersson:
My personal opinion on this hit was that Nurse contacted Pettersson’s shoulder, and the force put Pettersson into the boards awkwardly. It looked awful, but it didn’t look like a penalty by rule in my opinion. If it was really a hit from behind, then the camera wouldn’t have been able to see the numbers on Pettersson’s back so clearly. Nurse would’ve been blocking our view of the numbers if contact had been made in the back. Alas, no call was made and the Canucks and their fans were not happy about it.
Derek Ryan used his stick to hit Nils Hoglander in an unfortunate area in Game 2 as well:
Ryan was assessed a minor penalty on the play. Canucks fans are calling this a spear though, and they’re upset that there was no supplemental discipline. I don’t like the play from Ryan either, that was a dirty play; but it was not a spear.
According to the NHL rulebook, “[s]pearing shall mean stabbing an opponent with the point of the stick blade, whether contact is made or not.” Ryan did not make a stabbing motion at Hoglander. Ryan lifted his stick upwards towards Hoglander, not horizontally towards Hoglander in a stabbing motion.
Finally, Evander Kane got away with a slew foot on Hughes in Game 2:
The NHL rulebook says that “‘Slew-Footing’ is the act of a player using his leg or foot to knock or kick an opponent’s feet from under him, or pushes an opponent’s upper body backward with an arm or elbow, and at the same time with a forward motion of his leg, knocks or kicks the opponent’s feet from under him.” This type of play comes with a match penalty and the potential for supplemental discipline.
Kane’s left foot definitely left the ice in a small kicking motion. I can understand the gripe of Canucks fans on this play. This isn’t the first time that Kane has been accused of this type of hit. Drew Doughty called Kane out for this type of hit while mic’d up during round one of these playoffs. There was also this hit from 2020:
Regardless of whether or not you feel that the referees got these calls wrong, the fact remains that the Canucks and their fans were mad about these plays from the last two games. The Oilers were buzzing around the Canucks net trying to tie the game in the final seconds of Game 3, and tempers flared. The Canucks took their opportunity to get a shot in on McDavid after all of those offences from the Oilers in the previous two games.
Related: Call Outs, Stand Outs, and Shout Outs: Oilers even series with Canucks in Game 2
This is an intense playoff battle between two Western Canadian rival teams. We had to expect that things were going to get heated in this series, and they most certainly have. The referees have lost control early in this series though. I just went through all of the issues that the Canucks might’ve had with the officiating in the last two games. I didn’t think that any of the three Oilers penalties in Game 3 were good calls. The Oilers allowed two powerplay goals on powerplays that never should’ve happened. Arturs Silovs got away with holding Ryan’s stick to prevent a goal from being scored.
The refereeing hasn’t been slanted in one particular direction. Both teams have had plenty of reasons to be upset at various missed calls or calls that were made during the first three games of the series. Oilers fans dislike Game 1 referee Steve Kozari, and Canucks fans dislike Game 2 referee Kelly Sutherland. The Canucks are 10-0-1 in the last three seasons when Game 3 referee Chris Rooney works their games.
When calls are missed, the players think they can get away with more, which leads to incidents like we saw at the end of Game 3. That incident was fuelled by anger, and that anger was elevated due to the performance of the referees in the series thus far. That anger is only going to be fuelled when more footage of this unpunished Zach Hyman cross check to Zadorov immediately after the Soucy cross check gets around:
I want to talk about Zadorov for a minute here too. Zadorov has been really good in this series, and he’s revelling in the role of the villain. He talked about how boring the city of Edmonton is, which is really just a move to try to get under people’s skin.
Zadorov is bringing those antics to the ice too. He stuffed Kane into the Oilers bench during Game 3:
The inital hit was a great hit. However, he hung around just to make sure Kane got ALL THE WAY into the Oilers bench. He rightfully received a roughing penalty for the extra pushing after the hit was made. It was totally unnecessary.
Canucks fans are complaining that Kane tried to kick Zadorov in the neck with his skate while this was happening. That claim is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. Kane had just been flipped into the bench, so his spatial awareness was not at 100% just then. I’m sure that he was trying to get his feet to the ground as quickly as he could so that he didn’t cut anyone. Kane himself suffered a severe injury from a skate blade last season, so I have a hard time believing that was an intentional kick.
Anyway, Zadorov continued playing the villain by cross checking McDavid in the back during the altercation after the final buzzer. Honestly, cross checking anyone in the back is a gutless move, especially while the play is over and the target is engaged with another player already. It was a cheap shot from Zadorov. I think the only reason that he got fined was because of the sequence that immediately followed, but it was still cheap.
It’s been a wild series already, and there are more fireworks to come I’m sure.
Related: Call Outs, Stand Outs, and Shout Outs: Canucks Top Oilers in Game 3
