{"id":289640,"date":"2026-04-28T12:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289640\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:26:35","slug":"oilers-backed-into-corner-as-injuries-fatigue-weigh-on-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/289640\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers backed into corner as injuries, fatigue weigh on roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0The fact that the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>\u2019 entire season was suspended in time \u2014\u00a0players and coaches waiting\/praying on a decision from a Situation Room that\u2019s 4,000 km away, on a puck that was a couple of millimeters over the goal line \u2014\u00a0 should tell us all we need to know.<\/p>\n

The Oilers have relinquished control of their season to forces beyond their control. And not just here, in April.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re watching here in the playoffs is a metaphor for the 2025-26 season. For a team coming off of two elongated springs, met with a viciously compressed Olympic schedule that touched everyone, beating up various different teams in various different ways.<\/p>\n

It hit Florida hard and early, laid low by injury and fatigue. It struck Edmonton more slowly, methodically, through a season in which they have grabbed hold of their game and delivered consistent content for more than one week maybe three or four times.<\/p>\n

The other 20-some weeks have been spent in assorted stages of losing said game, searching for said game, or flushing some horrid effort and heading back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n

And now, the injuries that struck the Panthers early have arrived at the same late hour as these young studs from Anaheim, the next great force out West. These eager Ducks would likely be vulnerable to a hard, defensively conscious game.<\/p>\n

Alas, if only the Oilers had one in them this spring.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re spent, this roster, its best player with a governor on his game like a golf cart that has strayed too far off the path.<\/p>\n

Leon Draisaitl<\/a>\u2019s knee conveniently healed just in time for Game 1. But as this series wears on, he\u2019s missing practices he\u2019d usually take part in, and losing battles he always wins at this time of year.<\/p>\n

The third-line centre, Jason Dickinson, was injured late in the season, has missed two playoff games, and is skating like a guy I used to play Saturday hockey with at Sturgeon Arena. The 1,000-game fourth line centre, Adam Henrique, will end his time in Edmonton on the injury list, and his rookie replacement (Josh Samanski) has taken two rookie penalties that resulted in two Anaheim power-play goals.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t even get us started on Edmonton\u2019s penalty kill\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had leads in all four games,\u201d said head coach Kris Knoblauch. \u201cThere have been numerous penalties, where we have a lead and they score on the power to give them an opportunity to get back in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game has been a little bit different,\u201d he mused. \u201cWe haven\u2019t been able to get that save or another clear or a blocked shot (on the penalty kill). A loose puck\u2026 The biggest opportunities that we\u2019re giving them is on their power play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teams that are chasing the game take penalties. Edmonton is chasing all series long because they\u2019re out of gas.<\/p>\n

You can shout, \u201cExcuses!\u201d<\/p>\n

I watch the games and I\u2019m telling you what I see.<\/p>\n

I would never have predicted that the Ducks could expose all of this so efficiently. They\u2019ve upped their game for playoffs, and have made it clear: a level this far from the Oilers\u2019 best game isn\u2019t going to be enough.<\/p>\n

Now, Anaheim will simply get better as their confidence grows. As Jackson Lacombe schools Evan Bouchard the way Bouchard did to Quinn Hughes two years ago in that series against Vancouver.<\/p>\n

As the Ryan Poehlings and Tim Washe\u2019s come off the ice after a shift won against a McDavid or a Draisaitl. As goalie Lukas Dostal \u2014\u00a0who has been only a little better than OK in this series \u2014\u00a0looks in the mirror and says, \u201cI\u2019ve got way more than this, and we\u2019re STILL winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

These Edmonton players are wearing Oilers sweaters, but watching them with a 2-0 lead in Game 4 \u2014\u00a0or a 3-2 lead \u2014\u00a0they looked nothing like the Oilers who routinely have come back in series\u2019 in past years.<\/p>\n

And the worst part? They\u2019ve got to know it.<\/p>\n

We always say it: the players know before everyone else. They know they\u2019ve brought a donkey to the Derby here, and that prolonging this thing may be good for the pride, but not for Draisaitl\u2019s knee, Hyman\u2019s wrist, or McDavid\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

So Knoblauch will have to coach some belief into his team for Game 5, if that\u2019s possible for a group that will be as hard to fool as this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there is some of that. That\u2019s the coach\u2019s responsibility (to instill belief),\u201d he said. \u201cSome of that (will come from) how we\u2019re approaching some of these games. How we\u2019re going to alter our game just a little bit. What adjustments are we making?<\/p>\n

\u201cCredit to Anaheim,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re a very good team, and if you look at the streaks they\u2019ve gone on, I believe they\u2019re playing very good hockey right now. We have to find a way how to break them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like we said: Edmonton had two winning streaks of three or more games all season long. Eleven other times they tripped on the third game.<\/p>\n

Now, they need to hop off the trainer\u2019s table and fashion a three-game skein just to earn the right to play another round.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s game pushed Edmonton past Florida as the team that\u2019s played the most hockey in the last five years. That takes a toll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0The fact that the Edmonton Oilers\u2019 entire season was suspended in time \u2014\u00a0players and coaches waiting\/praying on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-289640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}