Capilano Rehab Centre Injury Report – March 8, 2016
8 years ago
Here goes another week of writing bad news in the injury report. The only two things keeping me positive about all these injuries is the fact that our playoff hopes are essentially dead (meaning we don’t need a healthy roster for an early off-season), and Connor McDavid (for obvious reasons).
Brandon Davidson, bless that man’s sou, is likely out for the season. Brandon Davidson has an amazing story behind his road to the NHL. He came into this season as the Edmonton Oilers’ seventh defenceman on the depth chart. After a few injuries, and a lot of hard work, Davidson earned his way to the top and was the best Oilers defenseman in the last half of the season, after Klefbom got injured.
Davidson began the season averaging 16 minutes of ice per night, and after stepping up for Klefbom, he was bumped up to upwards of 25 minutes a night. Fighting above your weight class is common for an injury riddled team that’s desperate for defenseman. But here’s the thing, a lot of players fail when they take on a lot of ice-time minutes (see Justin Schultz). Not Davidson though, Brandon excelled and played the best he has all year.
Talking about how amazing he is, and knowing what I am about to talk about next makes me so so sad. But if we’ve learned one thing from watching the Oilers this season, it is that you can’t possibly have good news, without having bad news immediately afterward. As is the case with almost every other Oiler, Brandon Davidson suffered a knee injury on a fairly innocent looking play. Davidson was back-checking hard to the net, when the train that is Dustin Byfuglien, skated right through him, clipping Davidson’s leg and bending it in a way that a knee should not bend. Davidson now sits on the IR with a “long-term lower body” injury.
If I had to narrow it down to THREE potential injuries, I would have to guess that it’s either his MCL, ACL, or meniscus. Maybe it’s because those are the only parts of the knee that I know? Maybe it’s because those are the only three parts in the knee? I couldn’t really tell you for sure. Either way, it’s safe to say there’s a good chance of Davidson’s injury being one of those three, and that he is more than likely out for the remainder of the season.
So here we have it, another injury to tally on the board. Instead of counting all of the players who have spent time on the IR this winter, I figured it’d be easier to count the players who HAVEN’T been injured this year. So I printed off the Oilers’ roster for those who have played over 25 games this season and crossed off everybody who missed games due to injury. The number of players that have gone uninjured? Six. Six whole players!
To avoid further jinking the team, I will not go into detail on who those six are, you can figure it out on your own. Unfortunately for the rest of the team now, nobody will have any motivation whatsover to try and step up to be the hero. After seeing McDavid, Yakupov, and now Davidson do it, I would just keep the game simple and dump’n chase all night if I was out there. Cause you know an injury is coming if you try too hard.
THE OTHER ONES WE ALREADY KNOW
- Benoit Pouliot remains on the IR with his long term shoulder injury after crashing head first into the boards, a couple weeks ago. No timeline on his return.
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been skating with the team for over a week now and will be returning shortly! Apparently after Thursday’s game in Minnesota, he will be considered day-to-day.
- Eric Gryba’s knee hasn’t magically fixed itself, and he remains on the IR. His timeline is indefinite at the moment.
- Andrew Ference has not played with the team in a very long time, and will not in the future either. If you are just finding this out now, you should probably go back and read all my articles.
- Oscar Klefbom’s return is still indefinite. He is skating with the Oilers in full gear during practice, however some are saying he may still be a while until he’s healthy again. Time will tell.
But seriously, have injury problems? Our friends at Capilano Rehab Centre will gladly help you out. You can contact them through their site, or call (780) 466-1104.
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PREVIOUS EPISODES
- Episode 8 – Return Of The CTI
- Episode 9 – NxNGretz Holiday Special
- Episode 10 – An NxNGretz New Years
- Episode 11 – Is There A TV Doctor In The House?
- Episode 12 – Making An Interner
- Episode 13 – Guilty Pleasures
- Episode 14 – All Star Weekend
- Episode 15 – Disaster In Jasper
- Episode 16 – Contagious
- Episode 17 – Story time with Pat Hughes
- Episode 18 – The Trade Deadline
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