Edmonton’s leading scorer this season with 101 points (49 goals) in 68 games suffered his lower-body injury during the second period of last week’s 7-1 victory over Utah Hockey Club, but still finished with a team-high 22:23 ice time as he searched for his 50th goal of the season.
“It was kind of a weird play, and I felt it pop or grab right away. I think you could see my, my discomfort,” he said. “It was a weird situation just because of where I was at and where the game was at. It was a 5-0 game, so maybe if that’s a tight game, I’m probably not stressing that I’m probably pulling out. So it’s all good and it feels good now.”
Draisaitl is a possibility to return to the lineup for tonight’s critical Battle of Alberta with the Flames where important playoff points will be on the line, and the Oilers still have ambitions of pushing higher in the Pacific Division while adding some breathing room between them and their rivals.
“Would I rather have played the three or four games? Yes, absolutely,” Draisaitl said. “But we still haven’t clinched anything. We’ve still got a ways to go here. We’ve got to win some hockey games and dial in our game a little bit, so obviously, you want to be a part of that.”
Coach Knoblauch also confirmed that captain Connor McDavid will remain out of the lineup along with defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who’ll miss a second straight game after being scratched for Thursday’s 6-1 loss to the Kraken for what was described as maintenance.
In a similar vein to Draisaitl’s injury, Knoblauch doesn’t want to rush Ekholm’s ailment and put him in a position where he could potentially miss playoff games.
“Just something that’s lingering… If this was a playoff game, he’s in the lineup tonight,” Knoblauch said. “But it’s something that we don’t want to get worse and hopefully, it’s something that can be healed with some time off.”
Goaltender Stuart Skinner remains day-to-day, and veteran Corey Perry is probable to play after not taking part in this morning’s full-team skate, which would give the Oilers a full lineup of 12 forwards and six defencemen.
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