Connor McDavid suspension: Should Edmonton Oilers captain be suspended for high-sticking Conor Garland? 

Any time Connor McDavid's Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks get together, there's bound to be some high intensity play. After all, they've been historic rivals for decades now, and that rivalry was compounded by last season's meeting in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

While the Oilers eventually prevailed over the Canucks in that series, the Canucks have their pride on the line. They may have entered Saturday night's contest struggling, but still wanted to come out on top over the Oilers on their home ice in front of their own fans.

However, during the third period, fans were surprised with an unusual display of violence from Oilers superstar captain Connor McDavid.

He got tangled up with Canucks forward Conor Garland and eventually retaliated by delivering a brutal cross check to Garland's face. While McDavid's teammate Leon Draisaitl immediately confronted Garland and pushed him against the glass, McDavid was escorted to the bench and sent to the dressing room.

He was assessed a game penalty and ejected. Because he was ejected, he would automatically receive a review from the NHL Department of Player Safety for his actions.

Connor McDavid has been suspended once for two games earlier in his career over an incident that took place in 2019 and has been fined multiple times.

Coming to the aforementioned game, the Oilers ended up losing to the Canucks 3-2.

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Connor McDavid drew controversy earlier in the week for a questionable play

During a game against the Minnesota Wild, McDavid drew the ire of the Wild for a questionable play where he appeared to elbow Wild forward Marcus Johansson, who was injured and didn't return to the game.

In his postgame media session, Wild coach John Hynes voiced his anger with the lack of a penalty and explained that if he was disappointed with the explanation from the officials.

"I don't even want to go down that road because it would probably infuriate you more than it infuriates me right now, so I'm just going to bypass that," Hynes said. "Similar to the other game, not a good answer. Let me put it that way."

There was no fine from the NHL for McDavid, thanks to his elbow on Johansson, a situation that there's no way he could be avoiding this time, thanks to his cross check to Garland's face.