Capilano Rehab Centre Injury Report – December 8, 2015

Throw a couple more injuries onto the pile this week, surprise, surprise. I don’t even remember what it’s like to have a healthy team anymore – it hasn’t happened all season. Good on the Oilers for hanging in there with all their injuries, though. There are a lot of people who would have given up as soon as Rexall’s ice and end boards teamed up to put our beloved Connor out of the lineup.

Do we really need to talk about what happened to Connor? I don’t think so. It may be early, but I am still hoping that we will hear the news that he is skating again. Maybe it’s all the coffee I’ve had today, but my legs are shaking just thinking about it. They hype for McDavid’s first game back is going to be unreal. People have been wondering about whether or not McDavid should be sent down for a conditioning stint to warm him back up after his injury. I’ll let the veteran bloggers rant about that, but I feel it’s safe to say that even if he comes back to the NHL not 100% in shape or up to speed, he will still be better than 89% of the players on the ice.

Two weeks ago when that linesmen violently body slammed himself onto Yakupov’s innocent leg, the timeline for his return was 2-4 weeks. It’ been two weeks and now McLellan is saying it is unlikely that Yak returns to the team before Christmas. What does that mean? According to the wanna-be Twitter doctors this most likely means his ankle sprain is a high ankle sprain. A 2-4 week timeline for a high ankle sprain is pretty generous as per my wanna-be doctor thoughts. Funny though, as I pegged McDavid to be back from a broken collar bone in six weeks.

Imagine the hype on game day when McDavid returns. *imagines*. Now imagine the hype on game day if McDavid and Yakupov return on the SAME DAY. *IMAGINES!* ConYak would be reunited, and I’m 100% positive that it will feel so good.

Benoit Pouliot is back on the never-ending-injury-reserve again. Poor guy. He got creamed by Phaneuf, in Toronto, at the end of November. Not sure if that’s how he got injured though, I never got a chance to ask him, but I think it must be the cause. Pouliot missed the next game and was then placed on the IR with a lower body injury.

If you’ve gotten this far in the injury report you will now have noticed that our most productive line at the beginning of the season, Yak-McD-Pou, is all on the IR. Every last one of them. This would seem like a good time for the team to give up, but NO. Not the Oilers. We are rallying, and we will win the Stanley Cup. There is no timeline for Pouliot’s return, but it leaves me wondering… You’ve already imagined the hype on game day if McDavid AND Yakupov return on the same day. NOW, imagine if McDavid AND Yakupov AND Pouliot came back on the same day! The NHL might as well just give us that 8th playoff spot and skip right to April.

Apparently, a lot of people consider Andrew Ference’s nickname to be Captain Planet, probably from his time in Boston. As someone who had no idea who Captain Planet was, and just learned about him, I think Ference makes a perfect Captain Planet. In defence of myself, I was three years old when that show got cancelled, or ended, or whatever, so it’s completely understandable that I don’t know who he is.

Somehow Ference got injured this past week and was put on the IR indefinitely. Can this guy’s season get any tougher? He’s only had about four minutes of ice time since November 3rd, and now he’s hurt. Everybody was asking me what happened to him and the best thing I could come up with was a freak snow shovelling accident. Maybe it wasn’t even a freak accident. Maybe Andrew was doing a nice favour for Mrs. Ference and he pulled the ol’ latissimus dorsi. He obviously doesn’t have one of those Canadian Tire Versatile Handle attachments that are supposed to prevent back injuries. It’s either that or the Ference house got a surprise visit from some extra terrestrial creatures and they messed him up good. The aliens were probably angry at Ference for trying to do so much good for the world, when they are trying to destroy it. I don’t know… who am I to to know. I’m just the injury report guy!

Rob Klinkhammer has missed 18 games with a lower body injury, and nobody seemed to notice. He has completely fallen off the map, for Oilers fans, but he’s back skating with the team and has been since the beginning of December. I’m excited for Klink to come back and add some depth in our bottom six. Although he has no set return date, I would expect to see Klinkhammer in the lineup before Christmas, and before the return of Yak and McDavid.

We were back at it this week with Episode 6 of the North x NorthGretz Podcast. This week we talk about the Oilers stringing some wins together, and play a little Battle Royale Game.