The Edmonton Oilers haven’t had much good news on the injury front. Although Zack Kassian may be ready to return on Sunday, they won’t be getting any more help from the infirmary for the next little while, reports Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.
Defenseman Brandon Davidson and Matt Hendricks, who both have missed over a month with lower body injuries, skated yesterday but head coach Todd McLellan noted neither are close to returning.
As for Kris Russell, who was supposed to just miss a bit of time with a lower body injury, is now weeks away from returning, Tychkowski notes. The veteran has logged significant minutes for the Oilers so far this season (over 21 minutes per game) while blocking nearly three shots per night.
Center Drake Caggiula, who had a strong preseason and was making a push for a roster spot, suffered a setback during the recovery from his lower body issue. McLellan expects the 22 year old to casually start skating in the next 7-10 days.
[Related: Oilers Depth Chart]
Other injury notes from around the league:
- The Calgary Flames will be without left winger Matthew Tkachuk for tonight’s game against the Rangers due to a wrist injury, the team announced via Twitter. The sixth overall pick back in June has spent most of the season in a bottom six role but still has scored three goals and three assists in 12 games so far. In a related move, the team announced that they have recalled right winger Garnet Hathaway from their AHL affiliate in Stockton; Hathaway is not expected to play tonight, however.
- Senators goaltender Andrew Hammond is nearly 100% recovered from his lower body injury, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun notes (Twitter link). When he returns, that would give Ottawa three goaltenders but based on Mike Condon’s start so far and Craig Anderson taking leaves of absence to be with his wife as she battles cancer, it would seem likely that the Sens will carry three netminders for the foreseeable future.
- Despite pulling himself after the second period of yesterday’s game with a lower body issue, Kings goaltender Jeff Zatkoff did travel with the team to Winnipeg, reports Lindsay Czarnecki of LA Kings Insider. Zatkoff was making his first appearance since October 18th after suffering a groin injury in practice but Fox Sports West’ Patrick O’Neal adds on Twitter that this was a groin spasm but the two injuries are not related. The team is likely to recall goaltender Jack Campbell from the minors. Still with Los Angeles, captain Anze Kopitar (upper body) also was injured on Friday night. O’Neal reports that Kopitar is day-to-day.
- On top of Avalanche forward Matt Duchene getting pulled from Friday’s game by a concussion spotter, defenseman Fedor Tyutin suffered an arm injury and is out day-to-day, the team reported on Twitter. Blake Comeau skated on Saturday and is nearly ready to return to the lineup, the team added in a separate tweet. Comeau has missed the last three games with a groin injury.
- The Jets announced that they have placed center Mathieu Perreault on injured reserve retroactive to November 4th with an upper body injury. The 28 year old has already missed enough time to be activated at any time moving forward but the placement allowed them to bring up a replacement player in Quinton Howden.
This is a desert