When he opened up on the hit, he stated that he wasn't trying to hurt anybody, the exact opposite of what went down last night.
Here's what he said:
"Look, it's unfortunate, and I hope he is okay, obviously not trying to hurt anybody out there, just try to go through there. Very unfortunate, and I hope he is alright."
The Oilers' captain was ejected from the game after he lashed out at Connor Garland and gave him a violent cross-check on the face after the Canucks' player held him down the ice for a few seconds.
"I'm just holding him. I mean, he's the best player to ever do it. So, the time's running out. And I just thought that was maybe the best way for us to win a game was to do that. I don't want to hurt him."
Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers head coach, also provided his thoughts on the incident:
"Absolutely, there's a rivalry and Connor gets frustrated. He gets his stick up, and he's frustrated because we're down one goal and the best player in the league is getting held for 15 seconds. And there's frustration that's allowed to happen, and the stick got up, and yeah, so that's what happened."
Earlier today, the Department of Player Safety announced that McDavid would have a suspension hearing for his gesture: