Connor McDavid fight injury ignites debate throughout hockey world
Connor McDavid has sparked a huge debate in hockey after fighting Tuesday. (Getty Images)Top NHL Draft prospect Connor McDavid can't so much as sneeze without it being a story, but when he injured his hand during a fight with Mississauga Steelheads forward Bryson Cianfrone Tuesday night, he set the hockey world on fire.
Initial X-rays reportedly revealed that the 17-year-old Erie Otters forward suffered a fracture in his hand. Erie Otters general manager Sherry Bassin also said he has 'reason to believe' McDavid fractured his hand in a radio interview Wednesday. The Otters captain is expected to see a hand specialist to determine a timeline for recovery.
An injury to the most famous teenager in hockey meant everything was up for discussion. This fight became a referendum on fighting in junior hockey. It brought criticism for McDavid's decision and whether or not star prospects and players should ever drop the gloves. some wondered if the fight actually improved his draft stock. It even brought backlash to the backlash. It's been nearly a ful day since it happened and it's still being bandied about on Twitter and now right here.
McDavid Injury VIDEO: McDavid hurts hand in fight
At this point, it's fair to assume McDavid will, at best miss multiple weeks due to the injury. That is highly unlikely to significantly impact his draft stock, but it could force him out of the 2015 World Junior Championship, which is being hosted between Toronto and Montreal. That's a big loss for Team Canada if McDavid is indeed out.
It also will knock McDavid off of the incredible scoring run he's been on in the Ontario Hockey League this year. The phenom had two points before breaking his hand to surpass the 50-point total just 18 games into the season. McDavid now has 51 points including 16 goals and 35 assists.
The reality is this: McDavid's draft stock was neither improved nor downgraded because of this. Even if this turns out to be a significant injury, he has seemingly pulled away in the race for first overall, building a lead that even the incredibly impressive season consensus No. 2 Jack Eichel is having at Boston University probably can't surpass.
McDavid, as not only the top prospect for the draft, but the top player for the team the guys in the other jerseys are trying to beat, has a big ol' target on his back. Players are going to run him as much as they can and there isn't a junior hockey enforcer in the world that's going to prevent that from happening. How do teams try to slow McDavid down? They do whatever they can to limit his time and space and also try to send him a message that it's going to be a long night. How's that been working out for everyone, by the way? Again, 51 points in 18 games.
We can talk about the value of fighting, but it shouldn't be tied to the fact that a star player broke his hand. It's a discussion worth having, in fact we took a long look at it last fall at CBSSports.com. The McDavid injury, however, probably isn't necessarily the best jumping off point.
The fact is, fighting is going to be around whether there are stricter penalties or not. McDavid, within the current rules of the game, did what he felt he had to do to stand up for himself. Perhaps he wanted to send a message that he wasn't just going to kindly take getting run.
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Should he be fighting? No. Even he would say as much, I'm sure. He's too vital to his team to be lost for five minutes at least and multiple games at worst. His coach obviously doesn't want it.
'We don't want Connor doing it,' Knoblauch said on Sportsnet 590 The Fan ( via Sportsnet.ca). 'Connor is a competitive person whose emotions are going to get to him sometimes. I'm not saying he acted badly, but he gets upset sometimes and sometimes that leads to a fight.'
Like Knoblauch said, emotions are going to run high, especially when you've been getting hit over and over. McDavid felt in that instance that he had to stand up for himself. He probably didn't expect to punch the glass.
It should also be noted that this was actually McDavid's second fight of the season. He instigated a fight with Liam Maaskant of the Kitchener Rangers exactly a month prior to his more recent fight. McDavid didn't get injured and the fight basically went unnoticed.
McDavid's profile has only grown since then and all eyes are on him.
There's good reason for the ignited debate after this. McDavid is 17, he's got an entire career ahead of him and he's probably the most anticipated prospect since Sidney Crosby. He's an important player not only for his future team, but the NHL as a whole. Him getting injured in any form would be news, but the fact that it came outside of the flow of a normal game is definitely worthy of raised eyebrows.
This has gotten blown out of proportion, though. It was a poor decision to fight, but it's also hard to be critical of McDavid for doing so considering the way he is targeted game in and game out. The rules will only punish him for five minutes for standing up for himself if he feels he needs to. In some cases, that will be viewed as worth it for the youngster.
The criticism of McDavid is the part that gets particularly questionable. There's obviously a lot for him to lose, but when he's playing Game 18 of a long season and he's been getting hit a lot, he's not thinking about the millions that await him in the NHL. He's just thinking like any 17-year-old would. 'I don't like this. I want it to stop. I'm going to do something about it.'
If you want to make it a bigger debate, go ahead, but this was one night where something went wrong. While this may be bigger than the average fight, it's not much more than an unfortunate accident.
Now the hockey world waits to find out how costly an accident that was.
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