The Oilers will get a veteran center back in the lineup when their schedule resumes on Wednesday. Head coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters today (video link) that Adam Henrique is “doing really well,” and it appears that he’ll be ready to play against Anaheim. However, the news isn’t all good, as winger Kasperi Kapanen has picked up a little ailment that could keep him out of the lineup for the first couple of games of their three-game California road trip.
Henrique has been out of the lineup for more than six weeks due to an undisclosed injury, missing the last 15 games as a result. He had a rough first half by his standards, as he has just two goals and eight assists in 43 games, putting him on pace for the worst offensive numbers of his career. However, he’s still winning nearly 55% of his faceoffs and playing an important role on Edmonton’s penalty kill so those areas should at least be bolstered by his return.
As for Kapanen, this has been a rough season for him on the injury front. He returned to Edmonton’s lineup last month after missing more than two months with a lower-body injury. Soon after, he missed three more games with another lower-body issue. This latest setback is not believed to be related to the first two. In between, the 29-year-old has been fairly productive, notching five goals and seven assists in just 19 games, giving the Oilers some decent secondary scoring.
Edmonton is only carrying the minimum of 20 players on its active roster following the recent demotion of Matthew Savoie so there won’t be any roster-related issues in order to activate Henrique. However, putting him back on the active roster would only give them 12 forwards, one of which is Kapanen, who isn’t going to play on Wednesday. Accordingly, the Oilers will have to either dress seven defensemen until Kapanen returns or they will need to call up a forward before Wednesday’s game.