Connor McDavid has drawn his share of criticism since the start of the season for his underachievement in Edmonton.
Former player Antoine Roussel, now a TVA Sports analyst, offered his opinion on the Oilers captain Tuesday during the first halftime of the Tampa Bay Lightning-St. Louis Blues presented on our airwaves.
According to him, McDavid does not set an example for his teammates, which Roussel showed by analyzing his first performance on Monday against the New York Islanders, which marked the debut of new head coach Kris Knoblauch. McDavid then played sluggishly, which led to the Islanders’ goal in the 40th second.
“In the first set of the game, when your “coach” has just been fired, as a player you have the duty to come prepared and concentrated. That made me so angry. I said to myself, “You can never win with a guy like him who doesn’t understand that his club is in a terrible situation and he doesn’t lead by example.” This is completely unacceptable. This is a common play that you should be able to pull off as a veteran.
“It would be an opportunity for him to do some introspection, but unfortunately he doesn’t.”
Present at the taping along with Roussel, former goalkeeper Éric Fichaud confirmed that “there is definitely a cultural problem in Edmonton.”
“Culture also comes from above,” added Roussel.
Watch the full segment in the video above.
