Day two of Edmonton Oilers training camp brought the kind of moment nobody wants to see in September: Connor McDavid taking a hard spill into the post during a scrimmage.
McDavid was flying through the opposition’s defence the way he usually does, then drove toward the net with his shoulder down and the puck on his backhand. New defenceman Shakir Mukhamadullin got his stick into McDavid’s lower back, and the captain crashed hard into the post, according to a video shared by Sportsnet’s Gene Principe.
McDavid got back up and was seen holding his arm, but he stayed on the ice and later scored on a penalty shot. For Oilers fans, that was the important part: he finished the skate and appeared to be fine.
Mukhamadullin’s edge certainly wasn’t timid, even if the timing and target were plenty questionable. And as Lowetide noted, he didn’t “Kirill Tulupov” McDavid the way the Russian camp invite once did to then-Oilers winger Ben Eager, when a heavy hit in the 2011 Joey Moss Cup left Eager with a concussion.
There was another scare later in the session when centre Jason Dickinson left the ice with an apparent injury. But TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported that Dickinson soon returned and even took part in a couple of drills.
When head coach Mike Babcock was asked whether Dickinson’s exit was a concern, he didn’t give much away at first.
“You saw that too, hey?” he said.
“How would I say this… is when something goes wrong, someone else gets a chance. We’re trying to create depth anyway, so who’s getting that chance?”
Pressed again on whether Dickinson might be missing time, Babcock was more direct.
“I don’t think so,” said Babcock. “We knew he wasn’t scrimmaging today.
We knew that before. We knew Ekholm wasn’t scrimmaging today, we’re just monitoring that.”
Dickinson did not take part in the scrimmage, with Owen Michaels filling his spot, as The Athletic’s Janson Duench noted.
The Oilers now turn their attention to Saturday night, when they open their pre-season schedule at home against the Winnipeg Jets.
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