The Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks 4-2 on goals from Evan Bouchard, Ty Emberson, a third-period winner from Corey Perry and an empty netter from Connor Brown
The Edmonton Oilers’ Evan Bouchard (#2 centre) celebrates his goal against the San Jose Sharks during first period NHL action at Roger Place, in Edmonton on Friday, April 11, 2025. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia
Connor McDavid has seven assists in two games after missing the previous eight with an injury, goaltender Stuart Skinner was healthy enough after missing the last seven games to serve as a backup and Mattias Ekholm rejoined the team after missing the last two weeks with a lower body issue.
Perfect, right?
But if it seemed like the Edmonton Oilers were finally turning the injury corner, you haven’t been watching the Oilers this year. Ekholm got re-injured on his second shift and winger Zach Hyman left the game with an undisclosed injury after just seven minutes of ice time.
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This is starting to get ridiculous — and scary. With the playoffs three games away, are the Edmonton Oilers walking wounded or walking dead?
“It’s tough to see,” said veteran winger Corey Perry. “Two big holes go down. Those guys play a lot of minutes and important roles for our team. But we have guys who aren’t in the lineup who can step in and contribute and guys who are in the lineup who can maybe do a little bit more. We’ll get through this and move forward.”
Things are getting so bad that even general manager Stan Bowman is wearing a walking boot while he recovers from an achilles tear.
The Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks 4-2 on goals from Evan Bouchard, Ty Emberson, a third-period winner from Perry and an empty netter from Connor Brown as Edmonton finally clinched its playoff spot.
McDavid assisted on all of them Friday night to join Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux as the only players in NHL history to record seven 70-assist seasons.
But the bad news far outweighed the good.
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“You want all your guys in the lineup, but lots of our top guys, impactful guys, are coming out,” said defenceman Brett Kulak. “It’s not not like this happened the last couple of days, though, it’s been a month or so and there are guys who are stepping up and taking on a bigger role. That’s promising.”
Ekholm didn’t last long in his first game back after missing the last seven. He played all of 1:25 before being pulled from the game. It didn’t look good, either — he fell down in the neutral zone, got up and took a few strides before falling again, untouched.
It left the short-staffed Oilers with just five defencemen for the second game in a row.
This is the second time the 34-year-old (35 on May 24) relapsed from this injury. Prior to missing the last seven games, he missed six games in a row, came back for four and got hurt again.
“He fell twice, aggravated something and felt it wasn’t best for him to return,” said Knoblauch, who didn’t have any further updates other than one of them (likely Ekholm) might not be back for the playoffs. “There is a possibility but we’ll wait and see.”
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This is becoming a recurring theme, players coming back from an injury and getting injured again in short order.
Leon Draisaitl missed four games, came back for three, got hurt again and hasn’t played since (four games and counting).
Trent Frederic, acquired from the Oilers at the trade deadline, sat out a month with his high ankle sprain, tweaked it again six seconds into his first shift, lasted seven minutes and might not be back for Game 1 of the playoffs, either.
“Guys battle so hard and put the time in off the ice to come back and then you see that,” sighed Perry. “It’s tough to see.”
Is there a glitch in the process that determines when a player is ready to come back?
“I think we’ve been fortunate in the past with our injuries, now our luck has run out,” said Knoblauch. “Just some freak accidents, feeling those players were ready to return and it’s unfortunate circumstances. That can always happen, and right now it just seems like it’s happening to us.”
Meanwhile, defenceman Jake Walman is still out, joining the long list of players who’ve been “day-to-day” this year and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins missed his second game in a row due to illness. And who knows what to expect from Evander Kane and when to expect it.
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Losing Ekholm, for some of the playoffs, if that’s the case, is a killer. He’s a huge part of Edmonton’s blue line. Hyman, meanwhile, is their second-leading goal scorer.
“There’s nothing you can do, if guys can’t play, they can’t play,” said Perry, when asked if this is getting discouraging. “You have to rally around the guys who’re on the ice and come together. We have a group in here that can step up and fill holes and play bigger minutes and play bigger roles and get the job done. We’ll go from there and see what happens.”
On the only bright side, McDavid has been all-world since he’s been back, assisting on seven of Edmonton’s eight goals over the last two games.
“Remarkable, coming back and playing the way he has,” said Knoblauch. “The one goal we scored that he didn’t get an assist on started with him. He drew a penalty, we got a six-on-five and we were able to score but he didn’t get an assist. To play at the level he’s playing is a huge advantage for our team.”
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