Maroon bemused by concussion mandate: 'It's a man's game'

The Edmonton Oilers were more than a touch annoyed when a call came down explaining that Connor McDavid would have to leave the bench and enter the mandated concussion protocol after tripping over a blade and whacking his mouth off the ice Sunday night.

The rhetoric after the game was more likely than not impacted by the fact that the Oilers secured just a single point in an eventual overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild. They would nitpick a bit after the bitter taste from their mouths dissipated, perhaps harp on the fact that the process has been inconsistent to date. But in the end, most would eventually agree the protection of players is paramount, and the necessary precautions are in place.

Most of them.

"This is a man's game," Patrick Maroon told Sportsnet Mark Spector, when asked about McDavid's removal. "People are going to get hit, get high-sticked. They're going to go through the middle and get hit. That's part of hockey, and that's why we have all this gear that protects us.

"Yes, if someone gets seriously hurt, we're concerned. But he just fell, got tripped. I just don't get it.

"It's a man's game."

Unfortunately, it's this perspective, and omnipresence of concealed symptoms, that makes it incumbent on the NHL to act in this instance, injury or otherwise.