It’s not clear how serious the injury is and head coach Kris Knoblauch said the Edmonton Oilers are leaving it up to Connor McDavid to decide if he wants to play. The Oilers’ captain missed the last two days of practices and is dealing with an issue that kept him out of the final few minutes of the win over the Calgary Flames on Sunday.
McDavid is now listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Knoblauch says it isn’t the same issue that caused him to miss two games earlier in the year and was ailing him early in the season when McDavid got off to an atypical slow start. It is believed something happened versus the Flames. Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic tweeted, “He felt some discomfort at the end of the Calgary game and didn’t play the last five minutes.”
Obviously, this is not good news for the Oilers. That said, it could be worse. It is believed this isn’t too serious of an issue and speculation is that keeping McDavid out of practice and potentially out of Wednesday’s game versus the Vegas Golden Knights is more a precautionary move than anything. It sounds clear that something is bugging him, but it also sounds like if this were a playoff game, he’d play.
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Instead, the Oilers want to make sure they approach this issue with an abundance of caution and don’t rush him back into the lineup, even if the games have some weight attached to them as the NHL regular season winds down.
A Healthy McDavid for the Playoffs Is More Important Than Anything Else
Ensuring McDavid’s full recovery, health, and readiness for Game 1 of the playoffs take precedence above all else. If it requires him to sit out the remainder of the regular season to achieve optimal condition, that’s certainly not ideal, but it’s a tradeoff the Oilers should be willing to make.
They are officially in the postseason now. The rest of the games are just about where they finish and their potential home-ice advantage.