This in from the Edmonton Oilers, news that star forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is out with injury. RNH has been one of the team’s few bright lights this year with 16 points in 16 games, and a key role on the one thing on this team that is working, the power play.
Tony Brar of Oilers TV report that, “Nugent-Hopkins is out for about a week with an injury, Janmark is set to make his season debut, Lazar comes in for Tomasek, Skinner starts vs. CBJ.”
Janmark, who scored two goals last year, is returning from injured reserve, with winger Kasperi Kapanen placed on Long Term Injured Reserve.
Oilers Grade A 16 games
My take
1. RNH has been slowing down in terms of his two-way play after a wickedly good start, which makes me wonder if he’s playing hurt for some time, maybe two weeks .
2. Nuge is big on the PK, big on the PP, and he was excelling in even strength play until this recent slump. It will be a major blow if he’s out for long, and with the Oilers iffy reporting of injuries you never know. Funny how a report of a player being out one week can last for an entire month or two, as we saw with Viktor Arvidsson last season. Not that I expect an NHL team to be forthright about the injury status of their players. Why would they be? Gives the opposition an edge. Better to keep them guessing.
3. Janmark was a defensive beast in his first season with the Oilers, the best defensive winger we’ve seen since Fernando Pisano roamed the wing. But he’s been trending down a couple years now. He was a marginal player in the playoffs last year and all summer there were rumours the team was looking at trading him.
Not to be. He’s back. Maybe after such a tough season last year he’ll find a way to rebound. The Oilers could use that beast-mode Janmark we saw in 2022-23 and in the 2024 playoffs, where he was one of Edmonton’s best players, earning his current three year deal.
4. With RNH out, I wonder if we’ll see two d-men on the power play, Walman and Bouchard. Both have cannon blast shots, and I would not mind seeing Bouchard on the left-hall wall, where he can unleash one-timer on net. Imagine facing harpoons from Bouchard on the left, Draisaitl on the right and Walman at the point.
Or we could see Roslovic in RNH’s spot and maybe Adam Henrique net front. Henrique, like RNH, has been one of the few high performing Oilers this year. He’s having a renaissance season at age 35, crushing it in his two way play for the past three weeks after an iffy start.
Great to see a player his age getting it done, as the Oilers have lots of key players heading into their 30s now. Maybe they can pick up a few tips from the player known as Rico.
5. Curtis Lazar has been OK in a cameo role to date. He buzzes around out there and hits, something that not so many Oilers forwards do.
6. If the Oil want to win tonight, the key is for this team to focus and play disciplined, hardcore defence. No bad pinches at the oz-blueline. No lazy backchecks and rancid angling in the nz, allowing opposing attackers top charge in fast. No over-pursuing at the blueline or behind the net, leaving star players free to take a pass and move into the slot.
If the Oilers want to help out their goalie Stuart Skinner, how about play championship defence for the first time this year? How about limiting CBJ to seven or eight Grade A shots, not give up the 20 the Oilers gave up to the Avs?
At the Cult of Hockey
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