Rick Tocchet calls out Edmonton fans and media with hilarious chirp ahead of rematch tonight

The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks face off tonight in a rematch of Saturday night's affair that ended with a Connor McDavid suspension and a Tyler Myers suspension.

No doubt all eyes will be on Canucks forward Conor Garland to see if the Oilers retaliate against him.

Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet was asked if he has concern for Garland heading into the game, to which he offered up this hilarious response:

“Yeah, he held the guy, so is that [worth] wanted posters? I understand if he smashed him in the face or got in a fight or did something. It’s a hold.”

Amen, Toch...

Let's not lose sight of the fact here that McDavid cross checked a guy in the face. As much as the Oilers want to paint McDavid as some sort of victim of the system here, he's the one who committed a foul. Garland's infraction was interfering with a star player away from the play in the final seconds of a close game. McDavid's was to smash a guy's face with his stick...

These things are not equal.

Oilers fans can be upset all they want, but at least Tocchet is calling things like they are.

Read below for our earlier report on this hot anticipated rematch, published yesterday by Hockey Feed staff writer Chris Gosselin.

After Saturday’s game in which Oilers captain Connor McDavid cross-checked Vancouver Canucks’ Conor Garland and was consequently suspended three games for his actions, the latter quickly became public enemy number-one in Edmonton.

Ahead of Thursday night’s rematch between the Oilers and Canucks, Garland spoke with the media following today’s practice at Rogers Arena and didn’t shy away from adding oil to the fire, saying he does not care about the extra attention he’s getting.

“I do not care,” said Garland. “I try to just play each and every day and give forth a good effort every day in practice and games.”

Garland went on to say that, unlike McDavid, his actions of holding down the Oilers’ captain to prevent him from scoring in the last minute of play weren’t trying to injure him.

“Whatever happened, happened. I didn’t hurt him, didn’t slew-foot him, or hit him in the head. I guess they’re upset about the hold, but I didn’t try to injure him. Whatever comes with that, comes with that.”

The McDavid / Garland incident is the latest in what has become an entertaining rivalry between the Canucks and Oilers. Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet added to spice things up about this about this seemingly nothing incident has blown up so much:

“Yeah, he held the guy, so is that [worth] wanted posters? I understand if he smashed him in the face or got in a fight or did something. It’s a hold.”

See the clips in the video below:

On Thursday, the Canucks will look to keep the momentum going as they desperately need to string together a few wins, and attempt to get another victory against the Oilers, this time in enemy territory.