Today, it was announced that both Andrew Ference and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would require surgery to deal with their injuries. Anyone know a virgin we could sacrifice? *remembers that I’m a blogger* Dammit. 

The season of endless injuries continues with news breaking this morning that two more Oilers would be going under the knife. Judging by where we’re at in the schedule, would it be unreasonable to wonder if both players are done for the year?

To me, it’s not really a surprise that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins needs surgery after taking a clapper to the hand in the game against Florida. I don’t know much about medical science, but I assume his baby bones got all bunged up by that shot and twisted bones don’t make for an effective recovery. According to Twitter, Nuge is actually under the knife as we speak and the surgery itself should not affect the six to eight week timeline.

If Nugey’s recovery is on the lower end of the 6-8 timeline that would bring him back to the lineup in the first week of March, giving him about a month left to go in the season. If the recovery takes longer than advertised (which is possible *cough* McDavid *cough*) then we could be looking at a scenario where he only plays a week or two worth of games. Would there even be a point to bringing him back? I’m just asking the question. 

Andrew Ference’s hip surgery is more of a mystery to me. He hasn’t played at all since November 27th against Detroit, a game in which he had only 4:24 of ice time. That’s almost two months ago! Does anyone else think it’s weird that the Oilers waited this long to get this surgery done? I’m no doctor (I did interview a guy that plays one on TV), but it seems strange to have waited months to get Ference some help if he’s been hurting this whole time. 

For some Oilers fans the loss of Andrew Ference is actually a celebration of freed up cap space. I think that’s a pretty awful reaction towards a guy that, by all accounts, is a gem of a human being. Andrew Ference had a rough ride in his time with his home town team, and despite things not working out I’m always surprised by the hatred spewed towards him only. Have we seen the last of Andrew Ference as an Oiler? Probably, but I wish him the best with everything he does in the future. The planet could use more people like him.