When you hear the words “Connor McDavid” and “injury” in the same sentence, alarm bells are ringing for Edmonton Oilers fans everywhere. Unfortunately, Oilersnation’s fears were realized on Monday night when their captain and team’s best player left the game after his first shift when an unpenalized trip by Zach Werenski sent him sliding into the boards awkwardly.

As you can imagine, social media lit up like the apocalypse was here when the announcement came out that McDavid would miss the rest of the hockey game, and the only thing I could compare it to was when Brandon Manning broke his collarbone as a rookie. Some Oilers fans were scared, others were hopeful… our minds were all over the map, and I wanted to share a little bit of what social media was like when the Oilers captain goes down.

“Welp, that’s the season” -@Monkeyboy0612

“Hopefully just ate some bad Chipotle” -@LarryBoy_66

“Favouring his left leg it may be injury. Hopefully nothing serious.” -@spartan2693

“Sprained ankle for sure.” -McDaddyWthe2nd

“SOFT” -xOilPT

Initially, McDavid looked fine as he got up, but something was clearly wrong after he tried taking a few strides before gliding gingerly back to the bench. The play looked harmless enough at first, but the slow motion reply showed McDavid’s left leg getting jammed up along the boards as he fell, twisting enough to obviously cause him some kind of issue. It wasn’t until a few moments later when we noticed Connor McDavid wasn’t on the bench, and that’s when the panic really started to get going.

Waiting for updates of any kind was torture, and my fellow Oilers fans did not handle it well when word broke that McDavid would not be coming back in the game.

“Yeah I can’t anymore. This season couldn’t have started any worse. I’m already so exhausted” -@quackenbush17

“And we are missing the playoffs” –@BesantBrandon

“Oilers are missing the playoffs now” –@TallDwarf28452

“Please tell me it’s just a joke” -@KailerMemeamoto

“Looking forward to next year” -@KMalts11

“Our turn to Circumvent the Cap” -@SPlandowski

“Hopefully just precautionary.” –@TheWondererNews

“I’m sick go my stomach” –@MikeSmithBurner

“we’re cooked” –@A1exNKT

“This season is cooked” –@TrashKuzma

“Just hoping by the time they did all their tests, it was already 3-0 so they said fuck it, take the rest of the night off” -@socaldave

Yet, while plenty of us were spiralling into the fiery pits of hockey hell, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug tweeted that the reports he’s hearing indicated that McDavid’s injury wasn’t as bad as we may fear. Of course, this update came before the game was over and we learned that #97 would be travelling back to Edmonton for further testing.

“Nothing too serious implies it’s not too serious but it’s still serious so i’m holding my breath until i see a proper injury report” –@chadwickvettel5

“Please please be true” -RFOgre16

“Still think a trade needs to be made. Shake up the team.” -@Oilers_Fan30

“As someone who has done it a million times, it looked like he just lightly sprained his ankle” -@Newfoundan

“The problem is that even if his injury isn’t where he’s out for months at a time just losing him for like 10-15 games could possibly mean missing the playoffs. But this could use a top 10 pick if were being honest.” -@JustinOilers

“I’ll believe that when he’s back on the ice” -@troytcarlson

Kris Knoblauch said post-game that McDavid will be coming back to Edmonton for further evaluation before a timely is set for his return, but the update didn’t exactly leave Oilers fans feeling overly optimistic.

“If he is going back to Edmonton, it is bad.” -@Dwiteg1945182

“I think people are reading into this too much and expecting the worst when it’s likely not. Think logically, the team was flying to Nashville tonight. Why would you stick the #1 player in the world on a plane to Nashville then a hotel room and away from his full medical team.” -@YEGdeal

“Why does everyone sound like someone just died? It’s time to pull up your pants and put on an honest effort!” -Thomas C

“Seasons over” -@EwickFwancis

“This roster isn’t good enough to handle a long stretch without 97. Hopefully it’s nothing serious…” –@danielonsports7

As you’d expect, other fanbases also showed their “support” for McDavid and Oilers fans that were hurting. Always respectful, always fun to be a part of the hockey community. Feel free to take guesses at home how many of these come from Canucks fans.

“enjoy missing the playoffs 🫵🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 another season, another battle for the 1st overall pick, typical Oilers, never change” -@shergill2000

“Did he hurt himself diving?” -@chaosgiraffe57

“Hopefully his last game as an Oiler” -@Ltg780

“BUST 2025” -@harb1225

“Hahahahaha” –@DarinAmundson

“This night just keeps getting better..” -@donairdaddy

“I’m hearing ligament damage. Will never be the same player again. Pray 4 McDavid @NHL has already reached out to @EP40AllStar to be the new face of the league #HugeW #W” -@EP40AllStar

And there’s your update on what it’s like out there. Great times, right? *sigh*