Edmonton Oilers Talk: Big Laughs at McDavid’s Expense (A True Story)

Have you ever heard the story of when Joe Thornton made everyone on the ice laugh when he called out Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid for not settling his scores by himself?

Recently over at The Athletic, a piece was penned by Joshua Kloke about Joe Thornton’s time in the NHL to date. The scribe interviewed former teammates and others who worked closely with Jumbo in an attempt to let the reader know what makes Joe Thornton so “Jumbo”.

The following story is one that should interest Oilers fans,

Mike Aldrich, head equipment manager, San Jose Sharks, 2005-20: In 2019, there was a collision at centre ice between Connor McDavid and Tommy Hertl. Neither one of them had the puck. Zack Kassian pushed Tommy near the glass. So Tommy gets the penalty, and a couple of shifts later, we’re back at full strength. And there just so happens to be a faceoff in the neutral zone, right in front of our bench. Kassian is lined up with his back to our bench and Jumbo is right in front of him. Jumbo is literally leaning over Kassian’s shoulder and he’s yelling “Hey, Connor.” Connor was not acknowledging him, so Jumbo keeps yelling, “Hey, Connor.” Finally, the puck’s ready to get dropped and Connor kind of looked over at him. Jumbo says to him, “When I was the best player in the world, I used to take care of that shit on my own. I didn’t need this middleweight to come in and take care of me.” And then he’s listing a couple of players that he fought when he was a kid, like Mark Tinordi. “The best player in the world” is how he referred to himself. I’m not kidding: Kassian and everybody who was on the ice and on our bench were laughing. He wasn’t being mean to Connor.