HALL OUT AGAIN?

The nagging left shoulder problem Taylor Hall aggravated against the Dallas Stars Friday kept him off the ice for practice today in California and the Edmonton Oilers might have to get along without him against the Anaheim Ducks Monday.

After a day away from the rink for a team golf outing with owner Daryl Katz in Palm Springs on Saturday, Hall, was noticeably absent from the ice today. While coach Tom Renney characterized it as a maintenance day, the day off comes after Hall tweaked the shoulder on a hit by Mark Fistric in the first period of 3-1 loss to the Stars.

Hall originally injured the shoulder on a hit by Ryan Wilson of the Colorado Avalanche Nov. 26 and missed seven games. He was in noticeable discomfort when taken down by Fistric, although he did finish the game. While Renney said after the game Hall had banged his elbow and jarred the shoulder, it looked more to me like he stressed the shoulder again when he tried to brace his fall — along the same lines as he did when slammed into the boards by Wilson. 

"Just a maintenance day," Renney said. "He’s got an issue with a shoulder there as everybody knows. T.D. (trainer T.D. Forss) decided we should keep him off to let it settle down, which is a good move. Hoping he’s fine in the morning, we’ll see what happens."

"An issue with a shoulder?" "Hoping he’s fine?" That’s not my definition of "a maintenance day," but that might be splitting hairs. The bottom line is the Oilers have to be extremely careful with Hall. Better safe now with rest and letting it heal than needing surgery later.

We’ll get more of an idea how serious Hall tweaked it at the morning skate on Monday.

— There’s a chance Hall’s nagging shoulder could prompt Renney to call up a forward from the Oklahoma City Barons, although no such move has been confirmed as of right now.

The likeliest candidate for that call would seem to be Linus Omark because he fits in a top-six role up front. The other option would be to go with seven defensemen. If that’s the case, it’s a good bet Theo Peckham will get back in the line-up after long stretch as a scratch.

— While there’s good reason to get Peckham back in after 14 games watching from the press box, you’d think the Oilers would want to get a look at Omark as he needs a new contract July 1. Then again, maybe they’ve seen enough and have already made a call on his future or lack of same here.

— It’ll be interesting to see what lines Renney ices against the Ducks. The Oilers have been feeble, to say the least, on the attack 5-on-5 in their last couple of games. They had just 20 shots in the loss to Dallas and 24 in a 5-2 loss to St. Louis last Wednesday.