BLOG: Oilers resting up before the Stars arrive at Rogers Place

EDMONTON, AB - The Edmonton Oilers were expected to practice on Wednesday afternoon until Head Coach Jay Woodcroft decided to pull the chute this morning to give his players a rest day before entertaining the Dallas Stars at Rogers Place on Thursday night.
The Oilers have played 18 games over the last 35 days, with a trio of Eastern Conference road trips sprinkled in to that sting. Edmonton's bench boss, after having discussions with his coaching staff and leadership group, decided that today would be best served as a recovery day for the road-weary squad in advance of welcoming the Central Division leaders to home ice.
"I think it's important to have an understanding of where we're at in our schedule," Woodcroft said in his Wednesday afternoon media availability. "I was just looking at it, and in the last five weeks or so since the All-Star break, we've gone to the East Coast three different times and come back. We went through a stretch of playing 11 games in 20 days. In conjunction with talking with our coaching staff and our people, we just thought that was the best decision for today."
"We didn't go on the ice, but that doesn't mean we didn't get better today. We treated today as a regeneration day to try and refill the energy reservoir so that we're ready to play against a really good team in the Dallas Stars tomorrow night."

Coach Woodcroft on Philip Broberg, who has been a healthy scratch the last four games:
"(Philip) didn't play the last few games, that doesn't mean he's not playing the games going forward. I think we're in the wee time of year and that's something we talked about last week in Boston. Philip is going to be an important player for us this year and an important player for us as we go forward as an organization, but the first and most important thing right now is that the team gains points on a nightly basis. While Philip's development is certainly really important, what's most important is the team right now. It's unfortunate that Philip hasn't gotten into the last few, but like I said, the plan is not to leave anybody on the vine right here. We're going to integrate people in and out of the lineup here as we move down the stretch."
"The other thing is, with the amount of recalls that are allowed, it's not like you can send people down to go get some minutes in the American League. That's not how it works here. Down the stretch, there are four recalls. We've already used two of them. So, you want to make sure that you're keeping that in mind as well as keeping people fresh and playing games."
Woodcroft on Ryan McLeod leaving last night's game against the Senators:
"I can tell you this, it had nothing to do with concussion-spotting or anything like that. That's not where the impact was. What I would say is it was precautionary reasons that he was taken out of the game. Obviously, he's getting seen by the doctors and all that kind of stuff and we're hoping that it's a speedy recovery for him."

Woodcroft on Zach Hyman, who missed Tuesday 6-3 win over Ottawa:
"He's been a little nicked up here and we just thought giving him a rest yesterday was in his personal best interests. He went out and skated this morning. I thought that was a good sign. He was one of the only guys that went on the ice this morning."
Woodcroft on deploying Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm together late in games:
"I think when you're at that stage in the game, you want to put the people on the ice you feel can get the job done. We have a lot of people to choose from, but I think I feel good when Ekholm is on the ice. I thought the people that we had out there went out and executed in that position, that was good to see. Darnell made a great play. Evander Kane, I have nothing but respect for his habits in his game because what he did on that goal. There's a lot of subtlety in the way he pushed out of the zone and made a play underneath to Connor. We had the right people on the ice at the right time yesterday. We were proven right."