The Capilano Rehab Injury Report: Bloody Noses And Broken Ankles

We’ve had a little bit of action over the past few days which is COOL cause I have something to write about but HORRIBLE cause injury news is often bad news. But don’t worry, I’ll start with the good news.

In the past week, long time injury report placeholder, Iiro Pakarinen was finally activated off the IR and assigned to Bakersfield (as expected) for a conditioning stunt. Iiro’s already making progress, tallying an assist on a beautiful goal from Jesse Puljujarvi a couple days ago. It’ll be interesting to see if Pakarinen ever gets a call-up with the team this season. So far there’s not much room for him but things change in a hurry at the NHL level.

 

On to the bad news. Now I call it bad news but by taking one quick stroll through Twitter it seemed more like good news to everyone. Kris Russell missed Sunday’s game against Montreal with an undisclosed injury. He’s listed as day-to-day and there’s no news on whether or not he’ll be playing on Saturday against Chicago or not. Russell didn’t play too much on the February 3rd game, so maybe he tweaked something then? All I know is that the Oilers are 1-0 without Russell in 2017.

 

Matt Benning also went down in the Friday game against Carolina. Benning was hustling in the corner until he got blindsided by Viktor Stalberg. It wasn’t really a dirt hit, just ugly. Benning was crouched down and pretty much got Stalberg’s pecs to the face. He laid on the ice for quite some time while an apologetic Stalberg hung around to assist.

Obviously Matt Benning’s injury is undisclosed. It wouldn’t be any fun for the Oilers to tell us what kind of injury the players have. Benning drew some blood on the play and he most likely has a broken nose. If I’m right, Benning shouldn’t be out too much longer cause he’s a hockey player and broken noses are nothing to hockey players. Thankfully he doesn’t have a concussion, and should be good to go for Saturday’s game.

 

Jujhar was added to the IR this past week, mainly to make roster space for call-ups like Griffin Reinhart, Anton Lander, and Jordan Oesterle. I would expect an update from the OIlers on JJ’s status early next week. He’s been skating on his own since February 1st, but this time last week he still couldn’t shoot the puck. Jason Gregor predicts we won’t see him until February 15th-ish, but with the magic that are Edmonton Oilers doctor’s, maybe it could be sooner.

 

 

Nurse is still on track to return for March. WHEN in March will be the question. He is officially out of his walking cast and has resumed skating on his own. My guess? March 4th, the Hockey Night In Canada game against Detroit.

 

I’m pretty sure I get more Andrew Ference updates in the community from the media than injured players from the OIlers. Ference was just named chairman of the Alberta Sport Connection which is a provincial agency that promotes sport development. Good for you Andrew, you go Andrew.

For your injury needs, visit our good friends over at the Capilano Rehab Centre! Visit their website or give them a call at (780) 466-1104.