Just as the Edmonton Oilers seemed to be finding their stride down the stretch, the injury bug showed up.
The team went into Thursday’s match with the Western Conference-leading Winnipeg Jets without Leon Draisaitl and they lost Connor McDavid and goaltender Stuart Skinner during the game. The visiting Jets beat the Oilers 4-3 in overtime, halting Edmonton’s winning streak at three.
Both McDavid and Draisaitl went for imaging on Friday to determine the severity of their injuries and are expected to be out for up to a week. Skinner was pulled for concussion protocol and head coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed on Friday that he’s been cleared.
The Oilers are 40-24-5 following Thursday’s loss to the Jets, three points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for the top spot in the Pacific Division and two points up on the Los Angeles Kings for second place. They have a huge four-point game in Vegas against the Golden Knights on April 1 and the hope is that McDavid and Draisaitl are back by then.
Between now and the game against Vegas at the beginning of April, Edmonton will host the Seattle Kraken and Dallas Stars, face the Kraken in Seattle, and then host the Calgary Flames. The Oilers might be without their top two players for all four of those games, but head coach Kris Knoblauch is confident that others can step up.
“We’re very confident with the team that we have,” Knoblauch said. “[We have] players that can step up and play bigger responsibilities than they have previously this season.
“I thought there was a great effort [against Winnipeg on Thursday] by so many of our guys. There’s no quit, and we’re gonna need more of that.”
Draisaitl is leading the Oilers with 49 goals and 101 points through 68 games and McDavid is second in both categories with 26 goals and 90 points in 63 games. Edmonton’s loss to Winnipeg was the first game that Draisaitl has missed during his MVP-calibre season while McDavid missed time because of an ankle injury in November and a suspension in January.
Zach Hyman is third on the team with 25 goals and is the only other Oiler to reach the 20-goal mark so far this season. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is closing in with 17, the ageless Corey Perry has 15, both Evan Bouchard and Jeff Skinner have 13, and Viktor Arvidsson has 10.
Without McDavid and Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Henrique will likely be the team’s top two centres. Nugent-Hopkins has found success lately playing with Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson on his wings while Skinner and Hyman had been playing with McDavid.