Wild’s Middleton refutes ‘horses—’ non-call on McDavid: ‘I don’t care if it’s the best player in the world’

If it was up to Jake Middleton, Connor McDavid would have been serving some time in the penalty box Wednesday night.

Coming late in the second period, the Edmonton Oilers captain caught Minnesota Wild center Marcus Johansson with an elbow to the chin. McDavid was not whistled on the play, however Johansson left the ice and was later ruled out for the remainder of the game due to an upper-body injury.

It was a play that did not sit well with Johansson’s teammate as Middleton slammed the ‘horseshit’ non-call postgame to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, before adding, “I don’t care if it’s the best player in the world.”

The Wild defenseman also implied that had it been a Wild teammate like Ryan Hartman or Marcus Foligno who delivered the hit, the outcome would have been different.

The play came with the two squads tied at three before Oilers right winger Vasily Podkolzin gave his side the lead early into the final frame, with McDavid then adding his second goal and third point of the game to seal the 5-3 road win for Edmonton.

With the victory, the Oilers carried the season series over the Wild, taking two of three contests including a 7-1 decision come in Minnesota in mid-December. The Oilers also pushed their win streak to three and improved to 28-13-3 to move within a pair of points of the Vegas Golden Knights for top spot in the Pacific Division.

As for McDavid, his three-point effort pushed him to 62 points on the season – counting 19 goals and 43 assists through 41 games – to stand three points back of teammate Leon Draisaitl for the team lead and nine shy of surpassing Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon for top spot league-wide.

The Oilers will look to make it four-straight victories when they return to the ice Thursday against the Avalanche.