The Capilano Rehab Injury Report

What would be my perfect injury report? Well besides reporting on NO INJURIES, my perfect injury report would be making injury updates as informative as they can get. For example, Kris Russell’s lower body injury is a strain in the hamstring area. Though pretty painful at first, Russell has come a long way. Today, however, his hamstring was a little more sore than usual, forcing him to only three hours of rehab instead of the usual five. The majority of this time was spent using relaxation techniques on the muscles, including massage and heat therapy.

Wouldn’t this be neat? The world would be an amazing place if we got such detailed injury updates from the teams. It wouldn’t leave us guessing and assuming. “He wasn’t able to do resistant band knee crossovers comfortably? MUST BE ANOTHER SETBACK!” Compared to now, I think it could definitely give fans a better peace of mind. “Lower body injury? OH NO ANOTHER STAPH INFECTION OH MY GOD!” 

I do have a couple updates for you this time around, though. Nothing as specific as I want them to be. But, hopefully, in the next couple weeks we will have our original roster being pieced back together slowly. Kris Russell’s status has moved down to ‘day-to-day’ as per Todd McLellan. Although in Oiler terms, this probably means week-to-week. He did not travel with the team to California, however, no one is counting him out to join them on this road trip at any time.

Mark Fayne is also making some progress from his lower body injury. He is now skating, which is always a good sign and means his legs are actually operating and not broken. After playing only a couple regular season minutes, I’m sure Fayne is aching to get into the lineup. All of these depth injuries didn’t seem so bad at first, but after this dumb losing streak, we need all the healthy players we can get. 

Brandon Davidson is another defenceman we are really missing on the ice. Since this losing streak, the only positivity I can muster up is the fact that we’ll have some healthy players coming off the IR real soon. Davy says his shoulder/back/armpit/whatever’s hurting him is feeling good. He claims he’s roughly a week away from returning!

There’s been no update on Pakarinen’s knee injury, which can only mean that it’s not good. Last week it was appearing he was on a day-to-day return basis which is great. But once again, in Oiler terms that probably means three more weeks. If Iiro returns by December 1st I’ll be thrilled.

From what I know, Caggiula could be the closest out of all the injured players to return. Tough to say if this will even help us. Will Drake be sent down immediately after he’s cleared to play? Or are we going to need him to mix things up in our lineup right away?

Drake’s been skating for a little while now, AND he travelled with the team to California. This doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be playing with the team, but it allows him to get some more skating and practice in. Also, he gets to see MORE Connor McDavid if he travels with the team!

Matt Hendricks is still feeling the effects from his lower body injury. The good news is that he’s been doing some light skating. This is a little easier on his mindset, knowing that you’re a step closer to returning, however, I’m sure it’s not a good feeling knowing that your team is struggling and you can’t do anything about it. Hendricks told the press a few days ago that he’s not where he wants to be yet. I would be surprised if we see Hendricks join the team before the end of November.

Shout out to Andrew Ference for passing the 400-day IR mark! *throws party*

For any of YOUR injury needs, please contact our good friends at Capilano Rehab Centre or call (780) 466-1104.