Kesler drills McDavid from behind right in front of the referee with no call.

Fans in Edmonton are outraged about this play and I do not think that their anger is going to be dissipating anytime soon.

On Sunday night the Oilers were in Anaheim, California to take on the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center and in spite of what the score would lead you to believe it was a very spirited affair. The Oilers largely dominated the game on the scoreboard, looks like at the time of this writing it will be a big bounce back win for the team after a rather humiliating defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings this week end, but things were extremely physical between both sides. 

There were a number of physical altercations both during the game itself as well as after the whistle with a number of players getting involved and a number of players being sent to the penalty box throughout the game. Even when the buzzer for the end of the 2nd period had gone off both these teams clearly still wanted a piece of each other and a scrum ensued forcing the NHL officials to separate the men on the ice, no easy task given how exhausted they must have been already at that point of the game. 

Perhaps the most egregious incident however came when Edmonton Oilers star forward Connor McDavid was the victim of a very dangerous hit along the boards. McDavid was engaged in a race for the puck with veteran forward Ryan Kesler and it looked like McDavid had gotten the better of Kesler when all of a sudden the Ducks' veteran decided to give McDavid a shove from behind. 

To suggest that this was an extremely dangerous play would be a major understatement. The push put McDavid on a trajectory to go head first into the boards and there's little doubt that he could have been very seriously injured if he had not managed to adjust the position of his body at the last minute. The craziest part about the play is that an NHL  official appeared to be staring directly at the play and never raised him arm, shocking given the player that was being put at risk here.

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