NHL's Department of Player Safety on the Cusp of Suspending Connor McDavid

The Edmonton Oilers lost a heartbreaker to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night, dropping a 3-2 decision that was chock-full of p*ss and vinegar, with 18 penalties assessed in the matchup, including a pair of infractions that will almost certainly result in suspensions.

Not only has Vancouver's Tyler Myers landed himself a meeting with the Department of Player Safety over a cross-check he delivered on Edmonton's Evan Bouchard, but Connor McDavid finds himself in a similar position over a cross-check he landed on the head of Conor Garland after the pair battled for a lengthy stretch in the Canucks' zone.

Former NHLer Mike Rupp was not the only person who believes that what McDavid did was an acceptable response to what he was forced to endure prior to the cross-check. Toronto's own Sid Seixeiro also chimed in with his opinion of the play, backing McDavid's actions.

Needless to say, the NHL's Department of Player Safety was less than enthused about how McDavid used his stick as a weapon, and appears poised to slam the gavel down and issue a suspension to McDavid for his actions.

The retaliatory cross-check that McDavid landed on Garland was eerily similar to the one Auston Matthews landed on Rasmus Dahlin during the Heritage Classic a few short years ago. This one landed Matthews a 2-game suspension.

If the Department of Player Safety is looking for the best way to handle the McDavid suspension, one would have to imagine that they'll use the Auston Matthews incident as a precedent.

Both McDavid and Matthews are superstars. Both McDavid and Matthews were engaged in battles where they were not the initial aggressors. Referees allowed both exchanges to go on a little too long, allowing things to escalate to a point where the stars took matters into their own hands.

The similarities are there across the board, so the logical outcome here seems to be that a 2-game suspension will be handed down.

However, as we've seen in the past, the NHL's Department of Player Safety seems to hold the Leafs to an entirely different set of rules when handing out suspensions, so it wouldn't be a total shock to see McDavid receive a 1-game suspension as a result of his cross-check on Garland.

We don't yet know when the hearing will be, but I'd imagine that the league will hand out it's ruling before the Oilers' next game on Tuesday.