TSN insider Pierre LeBrun offered a quotable nugget on Tuesday, suggesting Connor McDavid’s priority may not be delivering his best for the Edmonton Oilers early in the season. This suggests that McDavid, along with a handful of other players who have their sights set on the Milan Olympics, may be concerned with that team and his focus may not be on his current NHL club.
While the panel of TSN Overdrive asked both Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger who would have more impact at the Olympics for Team Canada this year – McDavid or Sidney Crosby – everyone got to the topic of how much better Crosby has been so far this season than McDavid. McDavid has one goal and the panel made predictions. When Bryan Hayes was called out for targeting McDavid, LeBrun was asked to tell him why people shouldn’t be tough on the Oilers captain.
LeBrun’s response was only that some players, including McDavid, might be suiting up for Milan, which explains why their NHL production has stalled. The hint seemed to be that McDavid was trying his best for the Olympics.
Is McDavid too focused on Team Canada?
Perhaps LeBrun wasn’t trying to imply that McDavid wasn’t focused on the Oilers’ season or making Edmonton his second priority. Still, the comments raised an interesting question: How many players are saving their best stuff for February?
If the suggestion here is that McDavid will find his game before the Olympics, and that’s big for the Oilers, then that’s one thing. If the hint is that McDavid isn’t worried about what happens in the NHL until the Olympics are over, that’s another.
Considering everything McDavid said about whether the Oilers can win a Stanley Cup and then take the time to sign an extension, it feels illogical to suggest that he isn’t specifically focused on turning the season around and getting better results for the Oilers than the 4-4-2 start the team is in. Still, it’s hard to explain why McDavid seems so strange. He misses opportunities to shoot and makes plays he normally wouldn’t make.
Ryan Rishaug posted a video on Tuesday ahead of the Oilers’ game against the Utah Mammoth, asking: “Connor McDavid has just one goal in 10 games to start the season – is he about to break out tonight?” If he does, it might put an end to LeBrun’s theory that McDavid might be holding back.
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