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EDMONTON, AB – While his teammates cleared out following practice at Rogers Place, Oilers captain Connor McDavid stayed back, spending nearly 80 minutes on the ice Wednesday trying to stay sharp – even taking some extra reps on the blueline.

“There might be some defencemen who are worried they’ll lose a job with him back there, but I think it'll probably just be a temporary thing,” joked Head Coach Kris Knoblauch.

After the dressing room had already been cleared, McDavid spoke to the media for the first time since being handed his three-game suspension by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Monday – punishment for cross-checking Canucks winger Conor Garland up high late in regulation during Edmonton’s 3-2 defeat in Vancouver this past weekend.

Just like he is with his teammates, McDavid isn’t one to just disappear – especially when there are six games to play when he returns from his suspension before he takes on a starring role at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Suspension or not, there’s still work to be done, and McDavid wants to make sure he’s ready to hit the ground running when it’s time for him to return this coming Monday at Rogers Place against the Seattle Kraken.

“I love to play. What am I going to do? I'd rather be on the ice than sitting at home resting,” McDavid said. “It's not like I can get a week away in Cabo, so I'm here.”

“I want to support the team. I want to be here for the team. I want to be here to get myself ready to roll when it’s time. I’ll have six games before the break, and we want to go into the break on a high note. I always feel that's important. How you go into a break is important, and that's my main focus here.”

Connor speaks Wednesday for the first time since his suspension

McDavid said two things are crystal clear when it comes to his three-game suspension, beginning with his regret over cross-checking Garland to the head after being held down by the Canucks winger for nearly 10 seconds while his team chased an equalizer in the dying seconds of regulation.

McDavid also acknowledged the hard job the referees have trying to control the game, and that it’s often a thankless job they have trying to maintain the pace of play and keep a level playing field.

While his punishment from the NHL might've been too harsh, he understands the decision and is ready to move on. But when those clear-cut calls aren’t made, they can turn into bigger problems – case in point, McDavid’s reaction to the non-call on Garland holding him down that prompted his three-game suspension.

“I'm just trying to tie the game. I'm not really looking to engage with him,” McDavid said. “Obviously, there's lots of holding and holding down. He holds my head down for a little bit and stuff like that, but I can't have that reaction. I know that. Everyone knows that. It’s not a reaction that I'm proud of or one that anyone wants to see out of me, and I understand that. That being said, there are lots of infractions going on there. Maybe the whole thing is avoided with a blow of the whistle or something like that. But again, I can't have that reaction.”

“Obviously, I knew where we were at the time of the game and what we were trying to do. The longer it goes, the more you're thinking there's going to be something. But I understand that the refs have a hard job. With that being said, my job's hard too. Everyone's got a hard job. That's why we're in this business.”

Kris addresses the media following Wednesday's Oilers skate

McDavid mentioned that the NHL could benefit from a level of consistency when it comes to following the letter of the law regarding penalties, saying that a penalty should be a penalty no matter what time of the season it is or when it occurs during a game.

“I think every player across the league just wants to see the game called [consistently]," he said. "A penalty in the first is a penalty in the third. A penalty in October is a penalty in April. So I think guys just want that standard and that consistency.

“I would say a big part of it is just the consistency, which is tough to ask for. That goes from game to game, ref to ref, so as I said, the refs have a hard job. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the refs and the work that they do. It's a thankless job. It really is. But with that being said, just call the game [consistent] to start the season.”

McDavid ranks in the 98th percentile for offensive-zone time in the NHL (47.0 percent) this season and is in the 99th percentile for offensive-zone time (49.5 percent), as per NHL Edge Puck and Player Tracking Statistics.

Despite how much he holds onto the puck and how often the Oilers are attacking when he’s on the ice, McDavid is averaging just 0.89 penalties drawn per 60 minutes, which ranks 134th in the NHL for players who’ve played more than 400 minutes.

The Oilers as a team are 27th in the league in drawing penalties.

“It feels like, as a team, we're drawing less,” McDavid said. “I'm sure the numbers would say that too, but just from the eye test or the field test, it feels like our team struggles to get power plays. We get maybe two a night, maybe less, so I’ve definitely noticed that this year.

“Is that an indication of maybe how much we're attacking? I don't know. It feels like we're attacking a lot. We’ve got the puck a lot. We certainly have that. We attack the net a lot. I think we average the second-most shots a game as well, so we're obviously going at the net a lot. You'd think that would result in more penalties drawn, but for whatever reason, it hasn’t. We'll just keep plugging away. Nothing we can do about it.”