BLOG: Oilers managing a few injuries heading into the five-day break

EDMONTON, AB – While a five-day break this week will benefit the Oilers in resting and recuperating for their busy December schedule, the time won’t be enough for forwards Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson to recover ahead of their team’s inaugural clash with Utah Hockey Club this weekend.

On Monday, the Oilers began their stretch of five days with no games by holding a hard practice at Rogers Place that was focused on the penalty kill and power play. Arvidsson and Hyman weren’t on the ice, and the two forwards have been ruled out for this weekend’s back-to-back set that begins Friday with their first visit to the Delta Center to face the NHL’s newest franchise.

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch confirmed after Monday’s skate that both Arvidsson and Hyman will miss “five to eight days” with their respective undisclosed injuries, including at least the first two games of Edmonton’s three-game road trip. The team will practice again on Tuesday and have a full day off on Wednesday before travelling to Utah the following afternoon ahead of Friday's game.

However, both skaters are anticipated to travel on the road trip, lending the possibility that both could return after the back-to-back on Dec. 3 against the Vegas Golden Knights.

“You gotta use the rest. The rest is a great thing,” McDavid said after Monday’s practice. “Obviously coming down the stretch here in December before the Christmas break, we’re using the rest as best we can to work on a few things. We worked on the power play a little bit today, which was good, so it’s kind of a weird week for sure, but we'll take it.”

"I think we've been going pretty steady for the past little while, so it's good to get a little bit of a reset,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added. “Obviously, you don't want too much of a break where you kind of let off the gas a little bit, but I think having a couple of days of practice here will be good for us. Today was a good one, and I think it was good to have a few days to give our bodies and our minds a little bit of a break before we get back to it in a few days.”

Arvidsson suffered a minor injury on Nov. 12 in an overtime victory over the Islanders that was initially given a day-to-day timeline, but Swede’s ailment hasn’t progressed as well as they’d expected and will ultimately keep him out of the Oilers lineup for at least the next two games – bringing his total to missed matches to eight.

“It was day to day and it just didn't heal the way it was initially thought,” Knoblauch said. “It was still kind of lingering. Right now, if we were in the playoffs, I believe he'd be playing. I think he would push through this, but where we are in the season, we want to heal and make sure he returns at 100 percent."

Hyman took a hard hit from defenceman Arber Xhekaj in last week’s shutout defeat to the Montreal Canadiens. Despite finishing the game, the 32-year-old winger would leave their win over the Ottawa Senators the following after two periods with an undisclosed injury and has now missed the last two games.

“When a player has an injury, you think that it's going to heal or there's a timeline, but there are always hiccups and it doesn't go as planned,” Knoblauch said. “So the plan right now for us is that we expect those guys to be available in five to eight days.”

The Oilers are coming off a 6-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night where they scored five even-strength goals and nabbed one with the man advantage, while their penalty kill improved to 16-for-16 over the last six games by finishing 3-for-3 on the night.

Five Oilers recorded multiple points against the Rangers, including Connor McDavid posting his sixth multi-point outing in his last eight games by scoring twice and adding an assist. Vasily Podkolzin notched his first Oilers goal to open the scoring, and both Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark attributed two helpers apiece – picking up assists in Darnell Nurse’s short-handed goal with nine seconds left in the first period.

“I thought as a team, we played well,” McDavid said of the win. “Our group played well in all aspects of the game. I thought the penalty kill was great and they pitched in with a goal. Five on five, it seemed we were able to generate a lot, which is good.”

With the continued absences of Hyman and Arvidsson, the Oilers will rely even more on their forward depth to take on bigger roles – including Janmark, who reached double-digit points for the season on Saturday (1G, 9A in 22 GP) and continues to be a force on the penalty kill next to Connor Brown.

“He and Brownie are definitely two of our best. They get the job done,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “They also can sniff out opportunities to skate with it too, so Mattias has been great. He thinks the game well, he reads situations well and the same with Brownie. He's got a great stick, so we definitely lean on those guys. But it definitely takes a full group.”

While there’s some flux up front at forward for the Oilers, the return of Darnell Nurse on Saturday was a major benefit to Edmonton’s blueline and the locker room after the Hamilton, Ont. product marked his return from a three-game absence with a short-handed goal over 23:30 of total ice time in the victory.

“When he was out, that was a huge hole to fill on the back end,” Knoblauch said. “He’s a guy that eats a lot of minutes against good players on the penalty kill, defends really well, and he pitches in offensively too.

“So when he's out, it's obviously a tough hole to fill and it's great to have him back and great to just see him healthy and feeling good again.”