Coach McLellan announces Connor McDavid will not return to the #Oilers lineup before #NHLAllStar Weekend (Jan. 30-31).
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 9, 2016
BOOOOOOOOO! *grabs machete, remembers it’s probably for the best, puts machete away*
It’s not that I’m really surprised that Connor McDavid won’t be back until after the All-Star break, but I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed. Never would I have wanted the Oilers to rush Connor back into action, but seeing that he has been involved in battle drills had me feeling excited. Normally when you see a guy getting back into the physical side of the game it means that they’re close, not another month (basically) away.
The Oilers’ first game back, after the All-Star break, is on February 2nd against the Columbus Blue Jackets which also happens to be a home game. That Tuesday will be 13-weeks exactly since McDavid was injured, and seems like a plausible date for his return. Although it’s disappointing that we’re still a ways away from seeing our sweet prince return to the ice, today’s update gives us a pretty good idea about when he’ll be back. The Oilers are taking the safe approach and it’s easy to understand why.
I will admit that I am happy to see that the Oilers are being patient with McDavid’s recovery. As much as I want to see him buzzing around the ice it’s important that his collarbone has properly healed before coming back. I would rather wait a few extra weeks to have the bone heal properly than risk this thing turning into a recurring problem. It sucks the hind banana that we have to wait, but there’s a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. As Lowetide would say, we wait.
McTIMELINE
- Injured – November 3rd
- Surgery to repair broken clavicle – November 4th
- Skating for a week, and taking shots on his own – December 18th
- Skating with the team – December 21st
- Takes part in battle drills – January 6th
McDavid Responds
“It gives me an extra week of bone healing & getting ready to play.” @cmcdavid97 on return following #NHLAllStar
https://t.co/Fh9lEYNVFV
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 9, 2016
WHAT ELSE DID THEY SAY?
“We’ve determined Connor is not physically ready to play between now and then.” Coach McLellan on @cmcdavid97‘s rehab progress
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 9, 2016
No setbacks involved in McDavid situation. Yakupov won’t play tomorrow but may give it a tryTuesday in Arizona.
— Jack Michaels (@EdmontonJack) January 9, 2016
McLellan says Klefbom has been missed just as much as McDavid. Still no timetable for his return, probably at least until after AS break.
— Jack Michaels (@EdmontonJack) January 9, 2016
McLellan says it doesn’t make sense to bring him back for a game or two before a 10 day break.
— Rob Tychkowski (@Sun_Tychkowski) January 9, 2016
Says McDavid will go on road trip to continue skating with team.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) January 9, 2016
…there’s a voice whispering in Chiarellis’ ear saying…we brought Taylor Hall back too early on a number of injuries and he isn’t our best asset today…the voice goes onto say … protect 97 along with your own a$$ at all costs…don’t give a rip about the ELC he’s still got to prove himself with a full season and not just this potentially on off season that remains…what if he gets hurt AGAIN in another freakoid hockey play …last thing the voice says…Peter…they are building it…the CUP will come !
Taylor Hall is not a diminished asset. Implying that his injuries are the reason he isn’t a better hockey player than McDavid is ludicrous.
Wow. Amazing how many qualified orthopaedic surgeons we have on ON uncovering the scandal that the Oilers management are deliberately holding back a fully recovered Connor McDavid, so that playoff games can be played in the new arena.
Do you guys operate with your tin foil hats on or off?
You can’t operate with a tin hat on , that’s crazy. Besides if mcdavid was like pat Kane he could have broke his collar bone come back and broke it again and still been back faster than what the oilers are projecting.
Explain to us oh wise one why Chiarelli is content to have the oilers in last place then and not improve the defence if you have all the answers and we’re so dumb. LAST PLACE. 9 YEARS. Oh San Jose up 3 zip on Toronto. Another team gonna start pulling away from the oil while we continue to be patient….
Easy there cowboy. Like it or not, Chirelli’s been here less than 1 year. 9 years sucks for the fans, but it’s irrelevant to how he’s going to run the team.
Getting feisty in here, oilers are not getting Mathews this year. They will end up 24-28 I think. No playoffs this year so let the kid watch video and heal properly.
None of this is reasonable.
Chiarelli and MacLelland avoid accountability at all costs.
They owe it to the Oiler fan base to get these players into the line up asap.
Deferring them si,ply let’s the eternal ditherer Chiarelli to waste this season.
Unscionable, inexcusable.
Either play them or trade the garbage and the over-rated to fix the defense at long last.
All of this confirms that Chiarelli is an complete incompetent. Wallows in action. CARES NOT AT ALL FOR THE FAN BASE.
Look for the Oilers go on an extended loding streak.
No other franchise would allow this to happen.
Total disregard for the fans who buy the tickets.
Flush the garbagw, flush the over-rated , and insist on accountability now!
If not, fire Chiarelli tomortow!!
Are the Oilers setting up to draft the twin tower of Finland in Puljujarvi and or Laine ? I’d like to see both .
Truly, get on board.
Fire Chiarelli, MacT, Lowe tomorrow
This disclosure on the eternal rebuild coupled with total inaction borders on I
The insane
Hall scores on his own net. We worry about trading him.
Chiarelli is all about lowering the bar, not winning games this year.
10 years of fan abuse.
Fire them tonight!
Jesus, commenters, stop writing like the Oilers have already drafted Matthews. That is more embarrassing than the silliness last night. Verdad, seriously, there’s a team in Calgary that would love your schtick. Please, repeat your repetitions over on FN. They need some bloggers that might actually inspire Dumpsterfires fans to use the site. You could be the resident Oilers basher? Please consider this. I’ll give you $100? Go to there.
@CMG30
If Peter does not make major moves this summer to upgrade the defence and add grit and tough to play against players to be bottom six. The infinity rebuild will continue. That means Peter will have to trade at least two soft skill guys. My picks are Ebs and Yak.
Opps.
nut job.
2003 to 2010 black hawks
look at them. 3 cups.
Oil has more talent.
It’s a shame 3 BOA’s this season will be without McD.
How do you figure? He has missed the previous thrashing and will miss the next one. That is all.
He played in the 2nd BOA tasting defeat to Alberta’s top club…a rite of passage for all the Coilers previous lottery suck awards
I’ve asked this before, but whatever happened to all injury status updates and comments are supposed to be handled by Chiarelli? Why was the news delivered by McLellan at the latest press conference?
Connor… it’s Mess… the Moose.
I heard you’re coming back after the All-Star break. I played at the All-Star game before. You will play one day too. Weird… right?
Anyways… I thought maybe we could hang out during those 9 days off.
There’s a place in Alberta called Jasper. It has some ski hills. Lots of ski hills. You gotta see it!
Because you’re still healing, we can take the bunny hill!
I need this… I mean, you need this!
Anyways, give me a call… Connor… call me… call me Connor… it’s Mess… the Moose.
Oilers need to trade their soft players for hard to play against NHLers.
It will be tough to trade RNH or Eberle. Salaries at 6M way to high. The only way is if the return player is not very good or has little left on contract.
It is going to be tough to rejig the roster.
Nobody wants Eberle or Nuge? They are “tough to trade”?
You forgot to mention Hall has “character issues” and McDavid is injury prone.
Oh yeah ….. Draisaitl !!!! Pssst. The dude is a Euro.
Oy!!
Here is 5 bucks. Feel free to buy a clue.
…soupy
I’ll buy that clue … this franchise is cursed…I said it before and my fiver says it again…the dynasty of bygone years left this talent ridden crew feckless and ego strangled and lazy… Chiarelli McLellan and all the well wishers ain’t gonna make it better anytime soon…lightning in a bottle soupy…the barn raising is soon and then we’ll all see if the demons are gonna F off!
Cursed? Tell that to the Toronto fans who watched McDavid slip from their clutches this April. Their heads will explode.
I don’t believe in Ghosts. But I do believe this was a terribly managed franchise. I think Nicholson / Chiarelli / Eddy Izzard will turn things around.
Probably not soon enough for either of our liking, mind you.
Not to worry, gentlemen. When the oil shuffle too slow to get Shattenkirk there is always Jared Cowen available as plan B. Or, if we decide to ‘keep our powder dry’ until the draft, Mark Pysyk might be available at the very reasonable cost of our 1st rounder. Love those ex-oilkings.
I can’t see the oil equalling last year’s stellar 28th place finish. 29th at best this year but oooh just wait until next year! And look! The canucks grab an overtime point. Slip sliding away.
It is off topic, but I wonder if we might see Kassian in Edmonton after the AS break? He might look good at some point riding shotgun with McDavid. Zack might tend to dicsourage players riding Conner into the boards headfirst. The man has hands which are multi-purpose if I remember correctly. I wonder how and if Chiarelli can replace some of the soft players in the top and bottom six before next season.
It will probably take more than one off season to move some of the Lilliputian forwards out and bring Chiarell-type players back.
Just read an article on LT’s blog mentioning Lowe commenting on “the master plan”, meaning lose ten years and win in new building I guess? Maybe they should mention this to season ticket holders. Keep them in the loop of this so called “master plan”.
What a joke, because next season is guaranteed playoff year? Yeah ok.
It is if Buff and Stamkos signs, and a trade of RNH for Weber happens.
Oh and the Oilers some how win the draft lottery and get Matthews.
….and the Oilers get a “cap exemption” for having done all those moves, then yes the playoffs are guaranteed.
Pipe dreams are a wonderful thing.
Shattenkirk=Petry= another soft college dman that does not have an impact on the game like Doughty,Subbhan,Weber,OEL,Josi,Boychuk etc etc
Giordano, Brodie, Hamilton
Hahahahaha . What a hilarious comment to wake up to first thing Sunday morning. Gio may be the worst contract in the NHL after this seasons D a shadow of his former self.Hamilton is a good dman and at 6’5″ 230 lbs is as soft as butter. I would love to have the 5’11 185 lb Brodie though.
Wow. You’re not even close but thanks for trying. Shattenkirk eats petry and spits him out. Shattenkirk instantly improves the oilers power play. How many games has petry helped Montreal win since price has been hurt?
mr. soupy…Babcock coming to hogtown on a deal that no one could refuse was THEIR consolation prize…while McDavid in Blue and White would have made all the difference to so many it was just their own curse that prevented that from happening…ghosts isn’t the word I would use in this Oiler franchise matter although I DID use ‘demons’…let’s say an organization like this can loose it’s ‘mojo’ via horrendous mismanagement, bad scouting and subsequent crap drafting and the variables just go on and on…the diminutive mr katz doesn’t help the cause much either doing his lil’ hitler thing to move the team to here and there if the city doesn’t play ball or hockey with his little self…but his money helps…
…for me there STILL are head scratching things with this outfit that need fixing and have not been…not Lowe be gone stuff but players that have sifted through the place and others that may well have come here and done some real good in a rebuild to go along with all this so called talent that can’t climb outta the frickin’ cellar…latest of all the Kassian get…his sobriety may just give the rest of the core party types a reason to grow up and get to work behind 97…hey question for you…how much time is enough for ‘our liking’ anyway? I’m kinda old and more patient as time goes by…
…have it your way Jay not j
Think conspiracy here.
This admission of failure and ineptitude by the incompetent Chiarelli.
Sits idle day after miserable day.
Then claims that no efforts will be made to try to salvage the season.
Chiarelli wants to lose. All part of an effort to do nothing. Set the bar so low.
Eternal rebuild.
Florida is an example of the opposite.
All this smacks of conspiracy.
Where is the press?
You are an absolute moron. Florida has been a terrible franchise for years and suddenly they are starting to turn it around and you think that they are an example of the opposite? The only reason they stand a chance now is because they have luongo in net.
They don’t want to lose you eternal asshat. This team is clearly better than it was last year and winning more games yet it won’t be enough because they still lack defence and proper goal tending.
The only thing that is repeating is your endless drivel about how everyone is out to get the oilers and everyone hates the fans. I hope you get hit by a Justin Schultz wiffle ball shot next game and it knocks you into a coma for the next decade so you can miss when Hall and mcdavid raise the cup.
…Verdad2.0
…when Chiarelli arrived, the koolaid was being served…this conspiracy you speak of was just named the “master plan”…MY question is going to be “WTF…the taxpayers’ are on the hook for the new barns’ cost over runs and katz whines more”
The “rebuilding” era needs to stop NOW…this season. Chiarelli should have calls in on Hamonic, Shattenkirk,Byfuglien and even the big fish like Weber. Ebs, Nuge, Yak and our 2016 1st pick should be bait. I will be pissed off if he picks up forwards again and doesn’t fix the back end (short of Stamkos). All we need is one legit #1 right handed defenceman and we will be playoff bound next year. Drasaitl can pick up the slack on wing if we trade Ebs, Yak. Or we can find a decent replacement on trade deadline day.
What makes you think he hasn’t made calls on said players?