The Edmonton Oilers will continue to be without a pair of top-six forwards for the foreseeable future.
Despite having five days between games since a monumental 6-2 win over a strong New York Rangers team on Saturday, both Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson remain out and will not play Friday or Saturday as the Oilers set out on the road.
Both right-wingers are out with undisclosed injuries, with Arvidsson sitting out the past six games, and Hyman missing the past two.
Their absences coincided with defenceman Darnell Nurse missing three games last week after taking a vicious hit to the head from Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves, who received a five-game suspension from the league.
Nurse returned after undergoing concussion protocol to score a goal Saturday in a 6-2 win over the New York Rangers, which stands as the Oilers’ most dominant display in what has otherwise been an up-and-down season.
And if the team hopes to gain any traction from the victory and turn it into some positive momentum in the standings, they will have to do it without Arvidsson or Hyman for the time being.
Neither were on the ice for Monday’s practice at Rogers Place.
“They’re going to probably be out anywhere from five to eight days, with both of those guys,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.
That timeline could carry them right through a three-game road trip beginning Friday against the Utah Hockey Team, before turning around to face the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. It wraps up Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“When a player has an injury, you think that it’s going to heal or there an (initial) timeline, but there’s always hiccups and it doesn’t always go as planned,” Knoblauch said. “So, the plan right now for us is we’re expecting those guys to both be 5-8 days.”
Arvidsson was initially listed as day-to-day and expected to only miss one game.
“It was day-to-day and it just didn’t heal the way it was initially thought. It was still kind of lingering,” Knoblauch said. “At that time, it was something that if we were in the playoffs, I believe he’s playing. I think he would push through this.
“But where we are in the season, we want him healed and make sure he returns at 100 per cent.”
As bleak as it appeared as the injuries began piling up a week ago, and the Oilers were blanked 3-0 by a Montreal Canadiens squad that currently sits last in the Eastern Conference, the Oilers weathered the storm by calling up Drake Caggiula and plucking Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the St. Louis Blues.
They turned around to win two of their last three, including the latest one against the Rangers, who are the highest-ranked opponent the Oilers have defeated this season.
The process of covering off injuries can be particularly challenging for a coaching staff like Knoblauch’s, who didn’t face all that much in the way of injuries after joining the Oilers in mid-November and guiding them to the Stanley Cup Finals. And certainly not multiple injuries at the same time.
“Somebody just has to find somebody to step up and slot guys in different roles,” Knoblauch said. “Obviously, you want your better players being in the lineup all the time. But that always changes when things come up, the injuries, the illnesses. Whatever.
“Also, hopefully you find things you didn’t think you would have. If there’s never injuries, you’ve got a player that’s just stuck on the third or fourth line and never gets that opportunity, then when he gets forced into that opportunity, you find out, can he handle it? Are we underutilizing him? Can he give us more?
“That’s the positive part of having an injury. You never want to see one of your better players go out, but you also find out what else you have.”
Truth be told, for as much as Arvidsson and Hyman factored into the Oilers plans on the season, they’re a couple of players who have seen their offensive production fall off pace of their past two or three seasons.
Currently, they’d have to combine their points to crack the top five in team scoring, with Hyman, fresh off a career-high 54 goal season, tied for eighth with eight points (three goals, five assists), and Arvidsson sitting 15th on the team with five points (two goals, three assists).
Perhaps that was the motivation behind placing the newly acquired Kapanen on the top line next to Connor McDavid, despite just playing his second game with his new team.
Never mind that he had just one goal to show in 10 games with the Blues before being waived.
But when they’re getting results like that against a team like the Rangers, it’s kind of hard to argue.
“Another thing you look at is, if it wasn’t for injuries we don’t get Kapanen,” said Knoblauch. “We were very fortunate to have claimed him, and the reason we claimed him is we thought of him as a good player, someone we had interest in before he was on waivers.
“But the fact that we needed players, and somebody was available that we liked before, we needed somebody. It was great to have him, so there was another positive.”
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On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge