The Edmonton Oilers won’t be getting forward Evander Kane back for Game 1 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings, head coach Kris Knoblauch said Sunday.

Kane has missed all of this season recovering from abdominal surgery he underwent last September to repair both hip abductors, two torn lower abdominal muscles and two hernia’s, spending the campaign on the Long-Term Injured Reserve. There was hope the 33-year-old would be good to go for Game 1 of the playoffs this spring, but as the date got closer and closer, it became more clear that may not have been the case.

Knoblauch said that another bruising winger, Trent Frederic, could be back in the mix for Game 1, considering him day-to-day and a possibility to be in the lineup.

The Oilers were absent defenceman Brett Kulak Sunday as he flew back to Canmore where his wife is set to give birth to their second child.

At Sunday’s practice, the Oilers kept their top-six in tact from their Friday practice with Connor McDavid centring Zach Hyman and Connor Brown on the top line and Leon Draisaitl up the middle with Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson on the second.

The bottom-six, meanwhile, got changed up.

The third line saw Ryan Nugent-Hopkins centring Jeff Skiner and Kasperi Kapanen, while Adam Henrique the mainstay up the middle on the fourth line, with Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry on his flanks. All that changed was Kapanen sliding up a line to the wing, and Henrique moving to the middle of the ice and down a line. Kane, Frederic, Derek Ryan and Max Jones skated as extra forwards.

On the blue line, Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard were together on the top pair, Jake Walman and Ty Emberson on the second, and Cam Dineen and Josh Brown on the third pair.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.