McDavid explains why coach Tippett kicked him out of Oilers’ practice

We finally know more. 

On Tuesday afternoon, fans in Edmonton got nervous when Oilers captain Connor McDavid left his team’s practice early today after having “a few words” with head coach Dave Tippett. Insider Ryan Rishaug of TSN caught the interaction on tape. 

McDavid left practice 18 minutes into it and was reportedly followed by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse. Some fans thought a leadership group meeting could be the reason. 

However, McDavid explained himself after practice what happened between him and his head coach. He revealed that as the team was about to do some puck possession drills and he wanted his star player to rest and not get fatigued for the upcoming game. Rishaug is the one that asked him about Tippett's decision. 

“He kicked myself, Nuge and Nursey off the ice. Just for rest. They did a little bit of a battle drill afterward so, he just wanted to give us a little extra rest, which is nice."

With players working hard on a shortened and tight schedule, we can understand why coach Tippett prefers to rest his star players. 

The entire team left the ice, ending practice after just 27 minutes. Fans started joking that McDavid was getting pulled from practice because of a trade, but we all feared the whole COVID ordeal and games getting postponed in Canada after teammate Jesse Puljujarvi’s false positive test last week. 

However, it was for McDavid’s own good that he was taken off the ice.