I’ve got some good news for you Oiler fans! 

We’ve gone another week without injuries in the Oilers locker room, which also means all of our current injured players are THAT much closer to returning. Yamamoto was taken off the IR last week and we saw him play his first NHL game of the new year as well. Tune in below as we have a big update on the recovery of Oscar Klefbom, and an update about Alex Petrovic.

Just over a week ago Alex Petrovic was placed on the IR with concussion-like symptoms. In case you missed it, Petrovic hit his head on the glass after taking a hit from Timo Meier against the Sharks. He’s been out since then with no specific timeline on a return. It was reported that Alex skated in yesterdays practice which can only mean good things. Concussions can be a tricky beast to handle as there are often setbacks that occur during recovery. I’m sure the Oilers will take no risk with Petrovic’s concussion and only bring him back when he’s 100% ready.

Good news on the Oscar Klefbom front! Klef skated by himself with a trainer yesterday morning for an hour before the team took the ice. This is the first time he’s been on the ice since breaking his finger during a game on December 13th. Coach Hitchcock said that there’s a lot of enthusiasm in the group after they watched Klefbom skate.

This is excellent news for the team and fans. Watching one of your best defencemen near close to a return after winning two games in a row is a huge morale boost for the guys. For the fans? Well, we couldn’t be more excited about this news either. If the Oilers can hold onto this playoff race that they’re in and then take off in the standings when Klefbom is back, I’ll be so happy.

As I said last week, the timeline for Klefbom’s return is the first game after the all-star break. Let’s hope all goes as planned over the next two weeks and he returns as planned.

Andrej Sekera is still plugging away with his recovery of the Achilles tear he suffered last summer. There was a bit of rumbling before Christmas about a potential return date for Reggie happening around February, but since then it’s just been crickets. Frankly, I’m not sure if the return of Sekera would help us that much for the final stretch of the season. It all depends on how well he can bounce back from his injury and based on the long-term injuries he’s suffered through in the last two seasons, I can’t seeing it be well.

If you’re in some need of some good, friendly physiotherapy services you can call them at (780) 466-1104 or visit their website!