Oilers employee calls for physical retribution after attack on McDavid.

An Edmonton Oilers employee has just stepped well over the line into the realm of controversy and is outright calling for rival players in the National Hockey League to be attacked in order to send a message.

Edmonton Oilers insider and host of "Oilers Now" on 630 CHED radio in Edmonton Bob Stauffer is clearly not happy about the way that the Oilers top star, captain Connor McDavid, was treated during the rather intense Battle of Alberta on Saturday night and he has made it known. The Calgary Flames clearly had a game plan coming into Saturday night's game and part of that game plan very obviously included getting McDavid off of his game by targeting him whenever he stepped out onto the ice in an effort to get inside his head.

Now whether or not you believe the Flames were successful in doing so is another matter entirely but there is no question that the Flames went after McDavid during the game, and Stauffer appeared to take issue with one incident in particular. Almost exactly midway through the games first period McDavid became engaged in a physical battle along the boards with Calgary Flames forward Mikael Backlund, a battle that eventually led to both men grappling with one another down on the ice. It was at that moment that infamous Flames' agitator Matthew Tkachuk came over and took some liberties at the expense of McDavid, something the Oilers and Stauffer were clearly not happy about. 

During the game the Oilers attempted to retaliate on several occasions by going after Tkachuk but, to his credit, Tkachuk never responded in kind and in fact secured a couple of power plays for his team by baiting the Oilers into unnecessary penalties. It was Tkachuk's unwillingness to answer for his transgressions against McDavid that appear to have really rub Stauffer the wrong way but surprisingly the Oilers insider believes that Edmonton should continue to play into Tkachuk's game, but not in the way they did on Saturday night. 

Stauffer has openly called for the Oilers to go after the opposing team's top stars in retaliation, in this case Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau, when players like Tkachuk refuse to answer the bell.

From Stauffer:

In the "new age" NHL the only way to combat a guy like Tkachuk who targeted McDavid in the Backlund melee... Is to reciprocate by targeting Gaudreau... If Tkachuk is going to go "full turtle" when challenged... The Oilers will have to lower themselves to that game!

Has Stauffer gone to farm in calling for violence against an opposing player? Or do you agree with his assessment of the Oilers predicament in the modern NHL?

[pub]