“Dig the f**k in!”: Connor McDavid blasts Edmonton Oilers teammates in epic and now viral rant

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Want to see how intense it is to win in the National Hockey League?

Connor McDavid's epic rant, recorded for an Amazon Prime production out October 4th, is a real and unvarnished indicator.

The NHL is obviously not a league for those who need a lot of hand-holding and comforting.

ESPN's Greg Wyshynski took to Twitter

In “FACEOFF: Inside the NHL,” premiering Friday, we see a whole different side of Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid.
* McDavid breaks down crying in the locker room after SCF Game 7. RNH rubs his neck. Draisaitl taps his thigh to say it's okay. Powerful.
*It's already viral, but the moment Connor McDavid cheers on his teammates: “It's the damn final!” Ditch. The f–k. In. Right, damn it!” – is really something. More emotion in those 15 seconds than we've seen from him in nine seasons.
* Some great scenes with Connor McDavid at home with Lauren Kyle, who makes perhaps the biggest revelation of the series: “Connor is afraid of ketchup.”
Her personal chef secretly leaves her ketchup bottles at the table when he's not looking.
* EdmontonOilers CEO Jeff Jackson on concerns about reaction to Connor McDavid's candor on PrimeVideo's NHL series: “I don't know how you can be upset about showing emotion because you're so desperate to win wants, and that’s what great leaders do.”

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My opinion

1. There are no surprises here. Of course things get so hot at the highest level of performance. They always have and they always will.

2. I don't want to tell you that this intensity is suitable for all sports. That's not it. It is not suitable for minor hockey teams or adult beer leagues. It’s not right for our classrooms. People need support, training and encouragement. Negative comments can be a curse on children from which they may never recover. But I'm here to tell you that there is a place and a time for such an angry and epic rant. And McDavid's timing was perfect.

3. We live in a world now characterized by civility and safety, well-being and justice. We live in a world of participation bands, where grade inflation is the norm, and the “honor roll” for top-performing students has been eliminated in many schools so that no one’s feelings are hurt.

But elite sport remains what it always was: a place where the classic values of hard work, competitiveness and sometimes ferocious intensity still prevail. It's interesting that professional sports continue to be so popular in this modern world. It says something about what we all still admire and believe, as opposed to what we constantly claim to admire and believe on social media.

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We haven't lost that wild side of us yet, at least many of them haven't lost it, especially Connor McDavid.

4. McDavid's rant appears to have come after the Oilers lost Game 2 in Florida, just before they lost Game 3 in Edmonton, then pushed the streak to seven games with a three-game winning streak. I'm glad to see that McDavid has that kind of fierceness in him. Without this ability, there is no way he or his team would have won the cup in the seventh game. Of course, there is no way he would have become the player he is without the fire that burns so brightly in his head and heart. He's a tough hockey man, which is what makes him and the Oilers so hard to beat.