The Edmonton Oilers will be without the services of Darnell Nurse when they face the defending-champion Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday (5 p.m., Sportsnet One).
The 30-year-old defenceman is out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, according to Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.
Nurse crashed into the end boards Tuesday in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay while attempting to hit Lightning forward Mitchell Chaffee, who ducked out of the way.
Wincing after the play, Nurse appeared to hurt his shoulder or arm.
He has 22 points (four goals, 18 assists) in 55 games this season and previously missed three games following a hit in the head by Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reeves in November.
LINEUP CHANGES
That brings John Klingberg into the lineup, who will play alongside Brett Kulak on the third defensive pairing while Troy Stecher moves up to play alongside Ty Emberson in the second pairing.
As for forwards, Knoblauch is choosing to sit up-and-comer Matthew Savoie, who has an assist in three games after being called up from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League over the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
In Savoie’s place will be Jeff Skinner, who has nine points in his previous 15 games, only to become a healthy scratch (for the sixth time this season) in Tampa two nights earlier.
But he isn’t just being reinserted any old where on the lineup.
Today, he finds himself on the left wing of the second line, right next to league-leading goal-scorer Leon Draisaitl, of all people, who is on a six-game goal streak (with seven and counting).
Go figure.
MY TAKE
Yes, a five-game losing skid is unprecedented for this particular edition of the Oilers.
Sure, it is a terrible time of year to have a chink in the armor get exposed by opponent after opponent, the way they have been.
But the blender Knoblauch has been using all season long, even through the best of times on a 22-6-2 stretch from the end of November to the end of January, should finally be given a break.
At some point, he needs to decide exactly which wingmen are going to benefit Connor McDavid the most and not use those spots next to him on the top line as a carrot to reward the effort of those further down the lineup.
Thankfully, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman are back up where they belong. And need to stay.
At the same time, if he can finally decide on one anchor point to put next to Draisaitl and the underperforming Viktor Arvidsson instead of going with the flavour of the day — at least until the calvary arrives at the trade deadline (or not) — then maybe the team’s leading scorer wouldn’t feel like he has to do it all by himself all the time.
Instead of getting Savoie up to NHL speed as much as possible heading into the post-season, where they’re most certainly going to need him, we’re seeing underachievers like Kasperi Kapanen — whose giveaway in the neutral zone ended up in the back of Edmonton’s net — or Vasily Podkolzin or Connor Brown, who can go weeks and weeks between goals.
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge