Edmonton Oilers doctoring lineup with injuries to Nurse, Arvidsson

Article content

The Edmonton Oilers have gone under the hood just as they’ve gotten on a bit of a roll.

But it wasn’t for some fine-tuning on their roster. Instead, the team has found itself on a busy road trip through Eastern Canada, having to pull over to make some repairs.

The latest was for an injury to defenceman Darnell Nurse, who had to leave Saturday’s game, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, after taking a shoulder to the head from Ryan Reaves.

Article content

It led to Reaves getting a match penalty for attempting to injure a player, while the NHL’s Department of Player Safety followed up by suspending the Maple Leafs forward for five games Sunday.

Of course, it comes as small consolation to the Oilers, who had to continue their journey without a key component on their top defensive pairing as they moved on to face the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.

“Obviously, there’s a big scare there, just when it happened on the ice,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “But since then he’s progressed really well, he’s doing as good as he can.

“We’ll take our time and make sure that he’s ready when he does return.”

A spare part was ordered in the form of American Hockey League call-up Josh Brown, who has two assists and 46 penalty minutes in 12 games with Bakersfield Condors.

“He’s been playing really well, been contributing to their success, been really physical,” Knoblauch said of the six-foot-five Brown. “A shutdown defenceman who takes a lot of space, but also the physicality and also has had some fights down there.”

The 30-year-old veteran of seven NHL seasons was a free-agent acquisition by the Oilers in the summer, before being sent down to the farm in training camp.

Article content

Article content

The Oilers will attempt to use Brown’s large frame to help fill the void in physicality left behind by Nurse, who is expected to be out 5-10 days with what is officially listed as an upper-body injury.

“As a coach, you just wish it never happened,” Knoblauch said. “And I guess no punishment could be severe enough in our opinion.

“But I think the NHL handled it well and we’re obviously just worried about Darnell and wish that hadn’t happened. But it is what it is.”

At the same time, Edmonton is having to make adjustments to its very makeup with an undisclosed injury to forward Viktor Arvidsson.

His spot at right wing on the second line next to Leon Draisaitl has been filled by committee with an undisclosed injury keeping him out longer than expected.

After missing Wednesday’s practice and Thursday’s 3-2 overtime win over the Nashville Predators, Arvidsson was anticipated to return to active duty in time to play the Maple Leafs.

Instead, he will sit out a third-straight game, Knoblauch said following Monday’s morning skate at Bell Centre.

As such, the Oilers will once again go with an 11-7 lineup, featuring one fewer forward and an extra defenceman.

Article content

As well, with the second of a back-to-back Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators to wrap up the road trip, the Oilers tapped backup goaltender Calvin Pickard on the shoulder for Monday’s game to save starter Stuart Skinner for the next game.

In all, it makes for further disruption for an Oilers squad that finally appeared to be finding its groove following a slow start to the season.

As they headed out onto the road, the team was coming off a season-high three-game win streak, and had points in its previous four (3-0-1) coming into Montreal on Monday against a Canadiens team toiling in last place in the entire Eastern Conference.

And now Nurse isn’t scheduled to return until the end of the month, at the very least, when the Oilers are on a three-game road swing down through the Rockies, while the far end of the estimate has him returning the second week in December.

“Our defence is much different now, missing Darnell,” Knoblauch said. “Much different than it was, say, in the Stanley Cup Finals that we had last year. But we know it’s only a short period of time.

“When we lost Darnell, we fortunately had seven defencemen, we had an extra defenceman. They were all playing, we did really well. We’ve got players that have played in the NHL, it’s not that we’re anticipating somebody coming up from our American league team to step up and be an NHL player. We’ve got depth, who have been NHL players, and we just recalled a player that has spent a lot of years previously in the NHL.

Article content

“So, we know what they can provide and we’re comfortable with that.”

E-mail: [email protected]

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun

Article content