New twist in Edmonton Oilers' injury parade and line-up carousel (2024)

Game Day Eight: Oilers vs Canucks

This in from Tony Brar of Oilers TV: “Adam Henrique is ruled out for Game 3. Connor Brown will come into the lineup. Henrique played 11:38 in Game 2.”

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Draisaitl – McDavid – Hyman
Foegele – Nugent-Hopkins – Kane
Holloway – McLeod – Perry
Janmark – Ryan – Brown

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Ceci
Kulak – Desharnais

Skinner
Pickard

My take

1. This is going to be endless, new twists in the Oilers’ injury parade and roster carousel so long as these Oilers stick it out in the 2024 playoffs (and may that be a long, long time indeed).

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Adam Henrique didn’t look right in Game Two when he got back into the line-up after getting hurt near the end of Game Five vs Los Angeles, cut down in a net-front scrum and hurting his ankle. Against Vancouver, he was slow on the PK to cut out a cross-seam pass from J.T. Brown to Elias Pettersson that resulted in a goal against.

A healthy Henrique would have got to that pass. So would have Connor Brown.

It’s little wonder Brown is in the game with Henrique still not quite right.

Brown is now good to go. He missed almost all of last season. He only got rid of a knee brace at Christmas. His play picked up considerably as the 2023-24 season went along. I’d prefer a healthy Brown in the line-up than any banged up player not named Leon Draisaitl or Connor McDavid.

2. Canucks fans cryin’ and whinin’ and bellyachin’ about the refs? Must be new to the playoffs.

Shock calls from the ref don’t just go with the territory in the playoffs. They define it.

When kids used to act up in my junior high phys ed class, teacher Joe Bunch of Devon, a former resident of Texas, would drawl, ” Quit your cryin’ and whinin’ and bellyachin’. Drop down and give me ten.”

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Ten push-ups was a fit punishment for our small crimes. Of course, moaning about the refs is the right of any and every fan — and I often do it myself — but perhaps every time we indulge ourselves we should pay some kind of small price or penance: drop down and ten push-ups.

3. After making just one major contribution to a Grade A shot at even strength in each of his previous three playoff games, Connor McDavid made nine in Game Two. He was moving and passing, moving and shooting, using his speed to his advantage, something he had not done in Game One. It also likely helped he was on a power line with Zach Hyman and McD’s favourite partner-in-crime Leon Draisaitl.

McDavid averaged 4.8 such major contributions to Grade A shots at even strength per game in the regular season, so his Game Two explosion was an outlier, just as his previous three game low had been.

It was a relief to see him find his even strength mojo again.

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4. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said Leon Draisaitl would be on McDavid’s wing at times tonight, but also would centre his own line at times.

5. McDavid, Hyman and Draisaitl stepped up in Game Two. To keep on winning, the Oilers will need more from players like Ryan McLeod, Warren Foegele, Corey Perry and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who have all played too much on the perimeter in these 2024 playoffs.

If they can find it in themselves to push their way into the scoring chance zone at even strength and get off Grade A shots, they’ll be doing themselves and the Oilers a major benefit.

At even strength, Hyman leads the way with 14 Grade A shots, followed by Draisaitl and Kane, 8 each, McDavid and Holloway, 5 each, Ekholm, 4, and Henrique and RNH, 3.

5. Many prominent Oilers commentators and pundits, and a great many fans as well, pushed hard for the Edmonton Oilers to trade for Erik Karlsson, then of San Jose, at the 2023 trade deadline. That trade almost certainly would have seen Evan Bouchard got to San Jose, but the push was still on. I wasn’t pushing for such a deal, but was open to it.

Bouchard was then playing behind Tyson Barrie on the Oilers power play.

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But sometimes the best moves of a GM are the ones he doesn’t make. Thank you Ken Holland for having more faith in Evan Bouchard than many others.

6. I wonder if Stuart Skinner will make some adjustment on corner shots now? Is it too tricky to change up something like that pronto?

Might well be plan, no?

If he allows another goal like the Zadorov goal, there will be hell to pay, I will suggest, an outcry heard from the top floor of the Stantec Tower to the deepest ravine of the valley.

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At the Cult of Hockey

LEAVINS: 9 Things

STAPLES: Secret sauce revealed for Canucks to beat Oilers

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