BLOG: Tippett provides multiple injury updates

EDMONTON, AB - Head Coach Dave Tippett provided a number of Oilers injury updates during his media availability on Monday afternoon after the team returned to home ice at Rogers Place for its first practice since completing a three-game road trip.
Defencemen Duncan Keith & Darnell Nurse, forwards Devin Shore & Dylan Holloway, and goaltender Mike Smith all skated before Edmonton's main practice, but varying severities and recovery lengths to each individual players' injuries present different timetables for their returns to action.
Of the bunch, the bench boss believes his two blueliners are the closest.
"They're a variety of different injuries, so I think Nurse and Keith are probably the two I'd say are going to be the closest (to returning)," Tippett said.
Keith departed last Tuesday's loss to the Dallas Stars after re-aggravating an upper-body injury that was an issue for the veteran defenceman earlier in November while limiting him to only 10:37 of ice time in the defeat. Meanwhile, Nurse remains on track to return to the lineup as soon as next week after a broken finger put the Oilers leader for average time on ice (26:06) out for two-to-three weeks.
"Nurse has to get cleared," Tippett said. "I think he's having another test or scan today, and then Duncan, it's just a matter of how he feels. It's the first time he's skated in four days today, so we'll see how he came out of it."