We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this past week. The bulk of the injuries in the last half of the season have just been minimal which is fortunate. It’s been mostly guys taking an extra day off to heal up a nagging pain or bruise. This is understandable based on the position in the standings the Oilers currently sit in. Thankfully Nuge is set to come off the IR and play in tonight’s game against the Rangers! This means that unless something wild happens between now and then – *knocks on wood* – our Injury Reserve will officially be empty for the first time in a long time.
Kris Russell
The week started with Kris Russell blocking a shot against the LA Kings. Kris blocked a shot with his hands in the game and went straight to the dressing room immediately afterwards. I mean, we had to see this coming sooner or later right? I’m surprised it took 61 games for Russell to get injured from blocking a shot. He’s only done it 191 times this season which makes it even more impressive. I can only imagine what his skin looks like underneath that equipment. His whole body must be one giant bruise, right?
Zack Kassian
I'll take what is tripping, even? Alex.
-ND pic.twitter.com/eCVN3bhRPo
— OilersNation.com (@OilersNation) February 26, 2018
The next game against the Ducks, Kassian gets slew footed behind the net and gets hurt. (no penalty on the play if you’re wondering). Add that to the list of reasons why I hate playing teams in California. We always get hurt! To be honest, I can’t really tell from that replay EXACTLY how Zack went down but I’m just going to blame Ducks anyways and say he got slew footed. Zack ended up missing a game with an undisclosed injury after that takedown. Getting slew footed and falling on your back can’t feel good, so I feel no blame towards Kass for wanting to take a day off. He left the ice slowly and never returned to the game against the Ducks, and, frankly, I wouldn’t have wanted to anyway.
Ryan Nugent Hopkins
McLellan says he has RNH pencilled in to play tomorrow.
— Reid Wilkins (@ReidWilkins) March 2, 2018
Nuge is coming back! It’s been a long month and a half but he’s finally coming back to us. I’m actually shocked to see that it’s only been a month and a half, cause it’s felt way longer than that to me. I also forgot how good of a season Nuge was having before he cracked his ribs in Vegas. He was almost on pace to have a career year and then Brayden McNabb had to go and ruin it for us. Call me crazy, but I have high expectations for Nuge’s return. I fully expect him to come back better than before and continue his strong year. He’s still been more productive on the IR then some other players in the lineup anyways.
Nuge has missed 18 games with broken ribs and he's still scored more recently than Lucic. 😂
— Baggedmilk – Beet writer til .500 (@jsbmbaggedmilk) March 2, 2018
RNH’S SEASON SO FAR
| SEASON | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | PPG | PPP | SHG | SHP | GWG | OTG | S | S% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-2018 | 46 | 16 | 15 | 31 | -4 | 20 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 106 | 15.1 |
| NHL CAREER | 441 | 111 | 185 | 296 | -46 | 142 | 26 | 97 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 4 | 993 | 11.2 |
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Not only was he having a good year, but he did it on the third line with random spare parts as his wingers, hence why his goals outnumbered his assets for the first time ever.
Never trade him. He should be the captain, cause he has managed to stay even throughout his entire stint with a team that has had everyone else shown the door.
Too much roster changes, always selling low on individuals and refusing to build through the draft. Absolute madness and yet I still hear his name in trade rumours. Also, why trade Klefbom after a bad year? Stick with a team already and make them have to work together to get out of this mess rather than continually get pennies on the dollar, and it’s almost like we reward players by trading them away for less because their new team just won a trade.
Stop the quick fix, stay patient, and start managing the assets better. Also, we draft fine, unfortunately we don’t develop well in the Ahl. The oilers are the development club for the rest of the league.
Crazy that nuge is the longest serving oiler, never complained, and never really got to play with any experience. He was forced into first line responsibility since he was 18 and now he is really a well rounded player.
Nnnnuuuuuuggggge!!!!!
Stay cool!
Not the captain, but certainly an A, hopefully for a long time to come. The core group of forwards should be McDavid, Draisaitl and Nuge (and Pulu, as soon as he gets to the level people are expecting, which’ll happen), and D core of Klefbom, Larsson & Nurse (all of whom are having more or less terrible seasons, but who are still young and will get better with time). Still some gaping holes in there but I’d say a bit of time is the one thing Oilers now need the most.
Expect PC to trade him in the off season ( one for one trade) and get a marginal player no one has heard of before! Many will scoff at my prediction……..but we have seen this movie before, too many times for my liking.