Kapanen was nearing a comeback before he appeared to reaggravate a knee injury late during Thursday’s practice at Rogers Place and “will be at least a week, maybe several weeks,” according to Knoblauch. The bench boss also added that defenceman Jake Walman is making progress, but won’t be ready to face the Kraken on Saturday in hopes that he can be ready sometime next week during Edmonton’s upcoming five-game homestand.
Despite the ever-changing lineup, there’s no time to wait for the Oilers as they try to work their way out of a funk with the players they have available.
“It’s unfortunate losing those guys,” Knoblauch said. “We were very optimistic getting guys back – Lazar, Nugent-Hopkins and Kapanen, those three coming back was great news – and we knew Walman was getting close. But of those guys, Lazar and Nugent-Hopkins are the only two, and then you lose a couple more, but it is what it is. Every team goes through injuries.
“We’re not playing very well, and adding some new life in those players gives you a little bit of a different dynamic, but we’re going to have to find a way with what we have.”
Nugent-Hopkins’ return on Saturday will be a significant boost for an Oilers team that’s losing one of its top scorers in Roslovic, with No. 93 set to come back into the lineup for the first time since playing on Nov. 8 during a 9-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
During Friday’s practice, Nugent-Hopkins was centring the third line between Mattias Janmark and Adam Henrique, but he offers Coach Knoblauch a lot of flexibility position-wise and with the different roles he plays for the Oilers.
“He does a lot of things,” Knoblauch said. “He’s a tremendous teammate. We’ve had players joke that he’s my favourite player, but Ryan’s a very smart, complementary player who you can rely on in the last minute of a game. He can provide some offence. He is an important part of the power play. He makes it run just by getting the puck in the right spots. He reads off what Connor and Leon are going to do, and he adjusts what position he needs to be in and what play is going to be made.
“I can go on about Ryan and how valuable he is, and we have missed him through this stretch of not having him, so it’ll be nice having him back because he can play in the top six on the wing, or he can be our third line center. He can be our second-line center if we want to play Connor and Leon together, so I can utilize him in many ways and he’s very valuable.”
