GDT: “Whatever It Takes” (McDavid Injury Documentary) • Friday January 24 • After the Skills Comp • SNET

[Crabapple]

Really stomach turning how serious it was and we had no idea. It's gonna be a tough watch but I'm really looking forward to it. We are incredibly lucky to have such a warrior playing our favorite sport, nevermind on our team.

 

[McJadeddog]

Bob was not part of the regimes you're referencing.

They don't owe you the complete truth, either. McDavid's camp made a decision and I'm inclined to believe he's healthy because it's a leg injury and I can see him move better than literally every other player on earth every second day.

Agree 100%. It is his health, and he deserves the right to privacy. The team doesn't owe me anything either. They have their reasons for not letting everybody know last summer (attracting free agents, ticket sales, etc). But because of those facts, you would have to be a fool to just believe everything this organization says in the future. They have a history of lying about injuries, full stop. Why would they change in the future.

 

[Frank the Tank]

Airing this over the all-star break will have me wanting the Oilers to hand out "supplementary discipline" to both Tkachuk and Giordano on the 29th.

 

[McJadeddog]

You actually need someone to tell you that its completely healed?
I mean...its not like there hasnt been any overwhelming evidence on the ice for the last 4 months.

Apparently Chara has been playing on a completely detached PCL for years now, so you can play at a high level without your PCL. McDavid is playing at a ridiculous level, but those two things can both coexist. Obviously having a fully healed, attached, PCL ligament and playing at a high level, is better than NOT having an attached PCL and playing at a high level. One of those options puts "unnatural" strain on the surrounding portions of the knee and can lead to other injuries. I think its crazy that some people don't want the answer to this question.

 

[Speed220DChalavan]

For those that don't want spoilers, don't click on this link

Terry Jones: McDavid knee injury documentary bares harrowing journey of non-surgery route

Lots of quotes from the documentary.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Stunned to watch Rishaug's report on this. How close Oiler fans and the league were to losing McDavid for potentially a season with risk of ever fully recovering. I'm glad this was kept under strict cone of silence to enable McDavid to focus on recovery. The media and fan attention would have been a massive invasion adding more stress and anxiety to McDavid. Course the skeptical part of me also thinks of the commercial benefit to the Oilers in keeping this under wraps. An abysmal season with a fanbase finally calling out a decade of incompetence by withholding discretionary money for tickets and merch, no McDavid for 2019-20 would mean no chance and really no reason to waste quality time and money to see a rudderless team bumble its way yet again to historic level of failure.

McDavid is a generational player. Through this potentially life altering adversity we can see just how fortunate this franchise is to have had the lucky ping pong balls to select him. As great as his skills are his character and will burns even greater. How fortunate we are to watch this guy as an Oiler.

 

[Satire]

Apparently Chara has been playing on a completely detached PCL for years now, so you can play at a high level without your PCL. McDavid is playing at a ridiculous level, but those two things can both coexist. Obviously having a fully healed, attached, PCL ligament and playing at a high level, is better than NOT having an attached PCL and playing at a high level. One of those options puts "unnatural" strain on the surrounding portions of the knee and can lead to other injuries. I think its crazy that some people don't want the answer to this question.

The individuals who had early access for the film mention that through intensive rehab they were actually able to get the ligament to start healing and the attach to the bone again. Not sure if that's hyperbole but I'm interested to see it strictly from the medical standpoint. That's not something I am familiar with but maybe it's a misunderstanding in context.

Also the first MRI that much of the public release was made on had too much swelling to see the true amount of damage. Apparently after that point they wanted to keep things more private.

Source: JONES: McDavid knee injury documentary bares harrowing journey of non-surgery route

Either way the more we learn the more you have to think McDavid is deserving of the Masterton Trophy and the Hart this year. What a legend.

 

[Speed220DChalavan]

Some key passages:

"
Jackson: “There was a point where we went for an MRI where we got to the point where we thought if the PCL fibers aren’t connecting, we might have to do the surgery now. Connor was very nervous that day. Lo and behold, that day you could see the fibers had started to cross and they said ‘It’s starting to heal.’ At that point with Connor, you could see the relief.”

Dr. Lindsay: “Once we got past the first six weeks, the fibers were attaching and then the bone fully healed.”

Oilers GM Ken Holland: “Talking to Bob Nicholson in the process to become the general manager, we did talk about Connor’s injury, but it didn’t seem to be all that significant. I don’t want to throw Bob under the bus, but I wasn’t made aware of just how seriously he was injured.”

 

[KlefDown]

Oilers GM Ken Holland: “Talking to Bob Nicholson in the process to become the general manager, we did talk about Connor’s injury, but it didn’t seem to be all that significant. I don’t want to throw Bob under the bus, but I wasn’t made aware of just how seriously he was injured.”

good old bobbo

 

[replacement]

Apparently Chara has been playing on a completely detached PCL for years now, so you can play at a high level without your PCL. McDavid is playing at a ridiculous level, but those two things can both coexist. Obviously having a fully healed, attached, PCL ligament and playing at a high level, is better than NOT having an attached PCL and playing at a high level. One of those options puts "unnatural" strain on the surrounding portions of the knee and can lead to other injuries. I think its crazy that some people don't want the answer to this question.

What kind of answer would satisfy you? "There is 0 chance this could cause future issues. We are 100% certain every single decision during the course of rehab was exactly the only appropriate decision to make. We guarantee McDavid will never hurt his knee again". Is that what you're looking for?

 

[replacement]

So from the article the PCL indeed DID heal. He is not skating around without a PCL. So we can just stop saying that now.

 

[iCanada]

Oilers GM Ken Holland: “Talking to Bob Nicholson in the process to become the general manager, we did talk about Connor’s injury, but it didn’t seem to be all that significant. I don’t want to throw Bob under the bus, but I wasn’t made aware of just how seriously he was injured.”

...

Wow.

 

[dss97]

Oilers GM Ken Holland: “Talking to Bob Nicholson in the process to become the general manager, we did talk about Connor’s injury, but it didn’t seem to be all that significant. I don’t want to throw Bob under the bus, but I wasn’t made aware of just how seriously he was injured.”

​

 

[GMofOilers]

Of course Holland wasn’t told until after he took the job, everyone involved had to sign NDAs

 

[SK13]

Agree 100%. It is his health, and he deserves the right to privacy. The team doesn't owe me anything either. They have their reasons for not letting everybody know last summer (attracting free agents, ticket sales, etc). But because of those facts, you would have to be a fool to just believe everything this organization says in the future. They have a history of lying about injuries, full stop. Why would they change in the future.

It wouldn't and it's not unique to the Oilers or the NHL.

So what's the point in conspiracy theorizing around every injury?

Oilers GM Ken Holland: “Talking to Bob Nicholson in the process to become the general manager, we did talk about Connor’s injury, but it didn’t seem to be all that significant. I don’t want to throw Bob under the bus, but I wasn’t made aware of just how seriously he was injured.”

I don't see the issue with this, either.

Holland isn't the Oilers GM at that point. If you're holding information on his injury close to the vest, and especially away from media, you aren't giving specifics to every non-employee you're interviewing. It does have an ugly component to it, I guess, in that you're trying to attract a candidate while misleading them - but our employers do it to us, so I'm not going to feel for the $5M/year NHL GM.

 

[guymez]

Apparently Chara has been playing on a completely detached PCL for years now, so you can play at a high level without your PCL. McDavid is playing at a ridiculous level, but those two things can both coexist. Obviously having a fully healed, attached, PCL ligament and playing at a high level, is better than NOT having an attached PCL and playing at a high level. One of those options puts "unnatural" strain on the surrounding portions of the knee and can lead to other injuries. I think its crazy that some people don't want the answer to this question.

I am not talking about the ability to play. I am talking about the ability to thrive and improve.
Its fair to say that Chara skating has definitly not improved since the knee issues happened. Suggesting a drop off would be a legit position to take.
McDavid actually looks faster this season than he did last season and based on some of the in game speed clocking so far that appears to be true.
So not only does he not look hindered at all by his knee it actually appears to be stronger. If there was any issue with stability then he would not be able to things at the level he is currently doing.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Of course Holland wasn’t told until after he took the job, everyone involved had to sign NDAs

why didn't Holland just say that?
seems to be Bobby Nicks was just as clueless as the rest of us

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[McJadeddog]

I don't understand how he could've had a fully torn PCL, not have surgery, and somehow have a healed ligament. Something doesn't add up.

Yeah me neither, but I'm no doctor. I'm guessing that the documentary will shed some light on this.

 

[SDig14]

Yeah me neither, but I'm no doctor. I'm guessing that the documentary will shed some light on this.

It's got to be one of those 95% torn, still hanging on and possible to heal itself that for dramatic effect said it was torn in half...I don't know. Just air this damn thing tonight.

 

[McDNicks17]

I don't understand how he could've had a fully torn PCL, not have surgery, and somehow have a healed ligament. Something doesn't add up.

Was all surgery ruled out? Like obviously they didn't do the PCL replacement, but could they have somehow gone in there to line it up to give it a chance to heal?

(Don't ask me if that's at all possible. I have no idea about this stuff haha.)

 

[McJadeddog]

What kind of answer would satisfy you? "There is 0 chance this could cause future issues. We are 100% certain every single decision during the course of rehab was exactly the only appropriate decision to make. We guarantee McDavid will never hurt his knee again". Is that what you're looking for?

No, just a doctor saying something along the lines of "the PCL has reattached and is stable, and has most/all of its strength back." Something like that would more than suffice.

 

[McJadeddog]

I am not talking about the ability to play. I am talking about the ability to thrive and improve.
Its fair to say that Chara skating has definitly not improved since the knee issues happened. Suggesting a drop off would be a legit position to take.
McDavid actually looks faster this season than he did last season and based on some of the in game speed clocking so far that appears to be true.
So not only does he not look hindered at all by his knee it actually appears to be stronger. If there was any issue with stability then he would not be able to things at the level he is currently doing.

Agreed. McDavid honestly doesn't look like he has been affected in any way. Maybe in the first few games he looked a "little" off, but that is splitting hairs. At Chara's age his skating wasn't going to improve anyhow.

Again, given the 2 options, 1 without a fully attached/healed ligament, and the 2nd with a fully attached/healed ligament, I can't imagine a scenario where somebody would willingly choose option #1. I just want to know what option is the scenario we now have.

 

[PBandJ]

No, just a doctor saying something along the lines of "the PCL has reattached and is stable, and has most/all of its strength back." Something like that would more than suffice.

No it wouldn't, you'd just say that doctor is lying.

 

[BudBundy]

It is chilling how close we came to losing the career of this unbelievable player.