In case you haven't been paying much attention this year, the Edmonton Oilers are bad again.
The Oilers came into the season with so much promise after a season in which they finally had broken their playoff drought and advanced to the second round of the West bracket. However, it's been a wildly disappointing season in Edmonton and the Oilers currently find themselves in the league's bottom five.
One of the lone bright spots has been young phenom Connor McDavid, the Oilers captain and reigning NHL MVP, who is still putting up impressive numbers despite the team's struggles. The 21-year-old center is currently tied for the second-most points in the NHL with 79.
But as frustrations build and boil over, even McDavid hasn't been exempt from criticism in Oilers country. On Monday morning, a video surfaced on the internet of some (seemingly) young Edmonton fans heckling McDavid while he walked out of a building and into a parking lot.
The group of fans lobbed some pretty soft chirps ("you've gotta start winning games man," "you're going to get traded," and "you're not doing too well!") at McDavid while he walked away from them. Even putting aside the absurdity of Edmonton trading McDavid -- one of the most offensively gifted players in the league -- after one bad year, it was still a pretty weak attempt at heckling.
This video was posted on one of the Oilers fan groups I am part of. I understand this isn't the oilers best season but you don't go out and harass the players especially when they are with their parents. Grow some class. You're not trying to be funny, you and your group of friends are a bunch of idiots. As an oilers fan, i am so sorry Mcdavid that you and your parents had to deal with this. The people in this video do not represent our city. We appreciate you being a part of our city. We love you. ALSO WHO STILL WEARS KAPPA TRACK SUITS?!
Posted by Fez Hussain on Sunday, March 4, 2018
It appears that Connor paid them no mind and, after the video made the rounds on the internet, he didn't seem to particularly care when asked about it on Monday.
"I'm not even going to talk about it, it's nothing," he told reporters. "It's so not a big deal, I'm not even going to say anything about it."
Oilers coach Todd McLellan was also asked about it. He addressed the situation by noting the painfully obvious: McDavid isn't the guy for fans to pin this team's shortcomings on.
"He would be the last one I would heckle if I was a fan." - #Oilers coach Todd McLellan defends Connor McDavid after the captain was heckled in a viral video. #yeg pic.twitter.com/4yqLbhYinD
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) March 5, 2018
Yeah, that about sums it up. Stop giving Connor McDavid a hard time, you dumb idiots. He's good! Without naming any names, there are plenty of other places you can direct your frustrations.
Whoops, how did that photo of Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli get there?
