Capilano Rehab Centre Injury Report – December 1, 2015

At the beginning of the season I was worried on not having enough to talk about on a weekly Oilers injury report. Turns out I was very wrong. In fact, it’s rather challenging to keep up with all the new injuries every week. You would be crazy to say that our 30th place is completely unrelated to our busy IR. As bad as the Oilers are currently playing, I still believe that we have a solid group of forwards. Twenty-five games into the season and we have not yet seen all of them play together even once as a team. Very frustrating. 

It’s crazy how even seeing McDavid in an interview can brighten one’s mood up. We still don’t know if he will ever play a December or January game yet, but you can’t deny that the sight of him reminds you of a huge Oiler positive that we have yet seen the full potential of. We all heard this past week that McDavid is “weeks” ahead of schedule. At Nation HQ, we still hope he will return at the end of December. Lofty goal, but as McDavid has proven before, anything can happen. Maybe we can all make a little wish before we go to bed tonight on McDavid’s return… that’d be great. 

As for the people who ridicule us for relying on an 18 year old kid, I don’t even care. Connor McDavid would change the face of any hockey team he played on, but we’re the ones that got him. It goes without saying that the Oilers need him pretty badly right now. The good news is that every new, depressing, day is one day closer to getting him back on the horse. However, looking at how this season is turning out, I’d say it’s safe to assume that Oilers management will not rush him back. A safe guess for McDavid’s return will be mid January. 

How unlucky do you have to be for a giant linesman to fall on your leg, putting you on the IR. Watching Yakupov’s injury basically sums up the Oilers season so far. You have to feel for Nail Yakupov as the odds of getting injured by a linesman are akin to winning four draft lotteries in six years. I hate the fact that people are blaming the linesman for the incident but I guess we need someone to blame for all this disappointment. Blaming the players and coaches in the past seven years hasn’t gotten us anywhere so we might as well start blaming the refs for our misfortunes. 

Now that I think of it, that linesman better have sent a fruit basket or an edible flower arrangement to Nail. It wasn’t his fault, but I’m sure it will make his conscience feel better. The freak accidents happening to Oiler players in recent years has got out of hand. First Taylor Hall’s face gets stepped on, then Sam Gagner’s broken jaw, and now Yakupov getting flattened by a linesman. If I’m RNH, and the rest of the OIlers, I would find a nice, safe spot in Edmonton to avoid falling jumbotrons or any other Final Destination type scenario. 

Trying to pull positives out of this situation… it could have been a lot worse. His leg bent extremely awkwardly and the fact that it was only a sprained ankle is something we should feel good about. Hear that? Nail Yakupov only sprained his ankle, let’s celebrate! Nail was put on the IR and is expected to miss two to four weeks. Ever since McDavid went down, Yakupov has been having a rough go on the ice. Maybe it is just better at this point for Yak to sit out until McDavid’s return, so that the two of them can continue lighting up the Flames in 2016. With the Oiler’s injured players slowly returning at the end of December, January will feel like a new season!

Thankfully that’s all there is for injuries this week. Not many, but two very important players. Oh wait.. I forgot about Rob Klinkhammer! Just like the rest of the world seems to have done. From what I see, Rob is missing and presumed dead after leaving a game a little over a month ago against Minnesota. His injury is listed as undisclosed, however, at the time of the injury, it appeared to be a lower body injury and has left him out indefinitely. His injury status will continue to get swept under the carpet until McDavid and Yakupov are healthy again. 

It’s sadly entertaining how nearly everybody in the Oilersnation office is sick, or has been sick in the past month. If you could hear us at our breakfast meeting this morning, you would hear silent moans, coughing, and exhales from no one being able to breath through their nose properly. I haven’t seen Wanye in a while but I can only assume he’s dying of sickness from Oilersnation association. Everybody seems to be blaming the intern for starting this mess, and I’ll admit I was sick a little over the month ago, but never got as bad as the rest of the office. My immune system fights hard! *pounds chest*. We should however, had designated someone to review Baggedmilk’s tweets over the weekend as he seemed to be hopped up on cold medication the whole time. He doesn’t usually have a lot of colour in his face on a regular day, but I can see a bit poking through his beard today so it must mean he’s feeling better. 

You ever wonder how I would get through an eff/marry/kill with some of the Nation staff? Find out this, and more, on Episode 5 of the North x NorthGretz podcast. 

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