Making sense of Arvidsson’s controversial hit on McNabb in Game 2

The Edmonton Oilers picked up a Game 2 win in overtime on Thursday night against the Vegas Golden Knights, but it wasn’t without controversy. 

Moments before Connor McDavid served up Leon Draisaitl for the winning goal on a two-on-one, Oilers forward Viktor Arvidsson drove Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb into the end boards, while racing for a puck. 

The 34-year-old folded into the boards, and the referees did not call a penalty on Arvidsson. Golden Knights head coach told media after the game that the officials “blew it.”

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli broke down the hit and the rest of the Oilers’ 2-0 series lead over the Golden Knights. 

Yaremchuk: Frank, let’s start with last night in Vegas as the Oilers jump out to a 2-0 lead, and all the talk is not really about that OT winner. It’s about the missed call in overtime, as Viktor Arvidsson took down Brayden McNabb. What did you make of it?

Seravalli: I think this is really unfortunate. I don’t think there’s any intent here. I think part of it is that there’s really not a lot of force applied here.

It looks like one of those situations where he actually tried to grab him and kind of wrap him, but when he went to get him, his stick got in the way. I’m not making any excuses here. Ugly result for Vegas, definitely a significant moment in the series, and it looks like a really significant thing for Brayden McNabb.

Yaremchuk: It’s absolutely a penalty. I understand all the frustration from Golden Knights fans as well, because you had killed off the five-minute major earlier in that overtime. It felt like when that game was at five-on-five, from basically halfway through the second period all the way through overtime, the Golden Knights just controlled five-on-five. 

For this to have a relatively big impact, because Leon Draisaitl fires home the game winner less than 30 seconds later, it’s frustrating for sure. 

You can catch the rest of the Oilers vs. Golden Knights segment and the rest of Friday’s show here…