The Edmonton Oilers picked the right time to get back out on the road with winter rearing its ugly head in the Alberta capital.
As temperatures plunged to -30 C Monday, the team wrapped up practice on the artificial ice inside Rogers Place in the morning and ventured out in the real thing on the way to a charter flight waiting to take them to St. Louis, MO., where the mercury read a balmy 20 C.
That’s a difference of 50 full degrees, for anyone looking to keep score ahead of Tuesday’s tilt against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center (6 p.m. MT, (Hulu, Sportsnet ONE).
It’s the first road game for the Oilers since going 3-1-1 on a five-game homestand over the past two weeks, where they earned seven of 10 points up for grabs, as they continue a stalemate with the Vegas Golden Knights over sole ownership of first place in the Pacific Division — a place the Oilers haven’t ended the season in since all the way back in 1987.
The Oilers are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, which they appeared to have tied up in the dying minutes. Leon Draisaitl sniped the corner on a one-timer from Connor McDavid, only to have the play reviewed on a coach’s challenge.
The goal was disallowed when it was determined the Oilers had been off-side entering the zone on the play.
The offending skate belonged to none other than the newest Oilers member, defenceman John Klingberg, who is still getting his feet wet with the club after sitting out since Remembrance Day 2023 with double-hip resurfacing surgery.
And you can bet those hips were doing everything humanly possible to keep his legs onside and the play alive. The last thing he wants to do is cost his team a single point as he takes the necessary steps to return to his own game.
“On that play, he’s anticipating he’s getting the pass on the attack. He doesn’t get it,” Knoblauch said. “I believe Connor (McDavid) keeps it himself and carries it in instead, so that was the issue.
“It’s not like he was standing still and just took off and went off-side, it was just he was anticipating the play and did everything he could to stay on. And he was probably about two inches from being on-side. It’s unfortunate.”
But if it takes a few growing pains along the way to get Klingberg back to top form, then so be it. The Oilers would like nothing more than to have the same offensive attributes at their disposal that he brought to the blue line of the Dallas Stars on their run to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final, while playing in the COVID-19 playoff bubble in Edmonton.
“For coming in as late in the season as he has, there hasn’t been very many growing pains,” Knoblauch said.
“He’s a veteran, he’s played a lot of NHL games, he’s been a pretty good player during that time, so he knows what he needs to do.”
The end goal would be pairing Klingberg’s offensive prowess from the blue line with a more defensive-minded defenceman, like Darnell Nurse, much like the Oilers do in their top pair with Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm.
“I thought he’s played two really solid games,” McDavid said of Klingberg. “He’s created looks offensively, he’s been good defensively.
“It’s not easy to jump into a season after missing so much time and I thought he’s done a really good job.”
So far, Klingberg has logged 16:39 of ice time in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings, which bumped up to 20:46 against the Leafs, as he looks for his first win in Oilers colours.
“We obviously relied on him quite a bit now with Ekholm being out,” Knoblauch said. “Puck play is outstanding, I think it’s just getting used to the speed, and that’s mostly on the defending. Moving the puck, he’s been great. But for the situation he’s in, I think he’s been doing a really good job.”
The good news on the defensive front is the Oilers appear to be getting Ekholm back in the lineup, as he practised Monday after missing his first game of the season in the loss to Toronto — a game where his absence was felt primarily on the penalty kill, which uncharacteristically gave up a pair of goals early on.
Ekholm was out with an illness that has been going around the dressing room.
“I can’t say how much illness has affected us more than other teams. There are other teams that are battling that too,” Knoblauch said. “But yes, we’ve had some issues, we lost Ekholm the other night, other guys have been playing through it a little bit sick.
“But I don’t know if it’s affected us more than others.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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