Should Ducks’ Helleson been penalized for hit on Oilers’ McDavid?

There was a scary moment during Thursday night’s game between the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers. Midway through the first period, Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid went in on a scoring chance, then took a hit from Ducks’ defenseman Drew Helleson that sent McDavid crashing into the Anaheim net.

McDavid was slow to get up but jawed at the Ducks for the hit. Soon after, Oilers’ forward Vasily Podkolzin went after Helleson, throwing several hard rights and receiving an instigator and a game misconduct.

Despite McDavid finishing with a goal and three assists, the Oilers lost 5-4 to the Ducks. He now has 10 goals and 34 assists for 44 points in just 17 games.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk is joined by The Sheet host Jeff Marek to discuss the incident and the fallout from it.

Tyler Yaremchuk: After the game, McDavid was still pretty fired up about this, and head coach Mike Babcock didn’t like it at all. I know people in the chat will call me Mr. Homer, but I’ll stand here and say: I don’t think this is a penalty. It’s maybe a touch greasy, but I don’t think it’s a penalty, Jeff.

Jeff Marek: Helleson’s job is to cover the far post. It’s a hard cut to the net, this is what McDavid does. I loved his quote, by the way, saying “I’m not a robot.”

Tyler Yaremchuk: Oh yeah, just to clear that up.

Jeff Marek: Just to clear everything up, I’m not a robot.” Nobody plays like you play, Connor, so maybe you’re not a robot, but you’re an alien.

Look, Helleson was doing the job he was supposed to do as a defenseman. He wanted to cut off someone who was trying to get to the far post. It looked more shoulder-shoulder or back-back; Helleson didn’t go in there and cross-check him into the crossbar or anything like that. It was hockey!

I’ll put it to you this way: I have no problem with what Helleson did last night. I also have no problem with Podkolzin and what he did.

The thing about sports is: If you’re expecting logic, sports is not for you. It’s just not. Don’t come to hockey looking for logic, because you’re not going to find it here. Last night was a perfect example of what I’ve maintained, and hockey is the best sport for this. It’s the best for this one vibe, and that is: hockey is the middle ground between what your head knows and what your heart feels. There’s a tug between the two of them. My head goes, “it’s just a bump, you bumped him.” But if I’m an Oilers fan, my heart goes, “that’s Connor freaking McDavid.”

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…