It’s been a rough season for Andrej Sekera. He suffered an injury in last spring’s playoff series against the Ducks and had off-season surgery. He finally made his return to the Oilers on Dec. 21 but, unsurprisingly, hasn’t looked like the same steady presence on the blueline that he did last year.

Things went from bad to worse for Sekera on Friday against the Ducks (ironically) as he took a puck to the face and left the game. Today, Sekera was placed on the Injured Reserve.

It doesn’t seem that this is a serious injury and thankfully it isn’t a re-aggravation of his ACL injury from last year’s playoffs.

The team hasn’t announced a corresponding roster move, but one would imagine it means Keegan Lowe, who was an emergency recall on Saturday, will stick around with the team as they travel to Vegas, Arizona, and Colorado over the next few days. With Adam Larsson still away due to his father’s passing, the Oilers have seven defenders: Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse, Kris Russell, Matt Benning, Brandon Davidson, Yohann Auvitu, and Lowe available.

Honestly, given the way Sekera’s ACL injury has effected his play, I’m not too worried about him taking some time off. The season is over and I would rather players be rested and ready to go come October, as sad as that sounds.