Wild D-man vents frustration over Connor McDavid's special treatment by referees after no-call elbow on Marcus Johansson

Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid faced criticism after an incident with Marcus Johansson during Wednesday’s game with the Minnesota Wild. Late in the second period, with 40.6 seconds left, McDavid caught Johansson with an elbow.

Johansson, skating low, collided with Connor McDavid, who appeared unaware of Johansson’s position. Following the hit, Johansson fell on the ice, but no penalty was called on the play.

The Wild later announced that Johansson suffered an upper-body injury and wouldn’t return to the game. Their PR account tweeted:

"Injury update: forward Marcus Johansson (upper body) will not return to tonight's game."

Johansson's status for Saturday’s game in Nashville is uncertain, and he may miss Monday’s game in Colorado.

Wild defenseman Jake Middleton shared strong opinions on the no-call. NHL reporter Michael Russo tweeted Middleton’s comments:

"It’s horse—-," said Middleton.

Asking if Marcus Foligno or Hartman did that, Middleton said:

“What do you think happens? I understand the refs have a hard job, but that was chicken—-. I don’t care that he’s the best player in the world.”

The incident has sparked debate among fans about whether star players like McDavid get special treatment.

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Edmonton Oilers' third-period surge with goals from Connor McDavid and Vasily Podkolzin down the Wild

The Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild 5-3 on Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center, with Connor McDavid scoring two goals. Jake Middleton praised his team's effort.

“I thought that the whole game was basically an A-plus effort,” Middleton said, per NHL.com.

“When you're looking at our last two games where we gave up leads in the third period, much different this game compared to the last game in Vegas. So obviously there's no moral victories in this league, but we came out and we competed for 20.”

Matt Boldy scored first for the Wild at 3:02 of the opening period on a power play. Marco Rossi added another power-play goal at 16:11, making it 2-0. Zach Hyman responded for the Wild 21 seconds later with a quick wrist shot to cut the deficit. Connor McDavid then made it 2-2 at 18:28 with a power-play goal.

In the second period, Ryan Hartman gave the Wild a 3-2 lead with a backhand goal, but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied it at 3-3 at 14:15 by tipping in Ty Emberson’s shot.

Vasily Podkolzin put the Oilers 4-3 ahead at 1:28 of the third period with a deflected pass. Connor McDavid scored his second goal at 12:39, lifting the puck over Filip Gustavsson, and secured the 5-3 win. With that, McDavid passed Jari Kurri for second on Edmonton’s all-time points list.