Can you feel it? Andrej Sekera is nearing his return and it’s making me feel all tingly inside.

Sekera skated with the team last week and they EVEN LET HIM LEAD IN STRETCHES! I’m sure Reggie has been doing a lot of leg stretches in the past few weeks so I can totally understand why they asked him to lead the team in stretches based on his veteran experience.

The initial timeline for Sekera’s return was some time in January. THEN media rumblings led everyone to believe that he may be returning in late December. But NOW I’m getting the vibe that if we all cross our fingers really hard we may be seeing him in the first half of December? Keep in mind this is just my un-educated opinion talking here. After the team practice last week, Sekera said he’s still a few weeks out from being cleared for contact. Once that happens though, I can’t see it being long at all before he’s cleared to play. I mean, Joe Thornton had surgery on a torn MCL and ACL back in April and he’s been playing since the beginning of the season!

There’s been a lot of questions and assumptions online surrounding Sekera’s return and the impact he’ll be making come his return so I’ve taken the liberty of answering the most common ones for you all:

Assumption 1: Andrej Sekera is going to look like a bag of crap who hasn’t skated in six months when he returns and won’t help us at all.

Assumption 2: By the time Sekera returns it will be too late and the Oilers season will already be in the garbage.

As you can read, all of these assumptions are wrong, and Reggie is going to return and save us all from disaster. My body is ready for it.

The Oilers are in New Jersey tomorrow for another matchup against former Oiler, Taylor Hall. Just like last time, the Devils are still struggling with a few injuries. If all goes as planned, these players will remain out of the lineup and we’ll walk away with another exciting W against them. Kyle Palmeri (foot) and Marcus Johansson (lower body) are still out of the lineup with their respective injures. Also we can’t forget about Steven Stantini and his 10 career points are out of the lineup with an upper body injury.

After the Big Apple, the Oilers move onto Washington who thankfully have quiet a few guys on the IR. Matt Niskanen (upper-body), Tyler Graovac (upper-body), and Andre Burakovsky (upper-body) all remain on the IR while Brett Connolly is currently day to day with concussion symptoms. The Caps are currently hovering around .500 so maybe this is a good chance for us to squeeze in a W?

For any of your injury needs, please visit our good friends at the Capilano Rehab Centre or call them at (780) 466-1104.