Connor McDavid back in Oilers lineup after lower-body injury

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Published Apr 15, 2024  •  Last updated 8 hours ago  •  4 minute read

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A date with the division title will have to wait. The Edmonton Oilers had something much bigger on their mind down the playoff stretch.

Saturday’s loss to the Vancouver Canucks all but assured the longest divisional drought in all of North American major pro sports will continue — one that hasn’t seen the Oilers claim the title since all the way back in the 1986-’87 season.

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The Oilers ended up tossing in the towel in the race for first place in the Pacific Division, which saw them claw back from 25 points behind the Canucks on American Thanksgiving to just a three-point gap going into Saturday’s head to head.

The one glaring omission in that game, of course, was that it was one of three sat out by Oilers captain Connor McDavid due to concerns over a lower-body injury.

But he was back on the ice Monday to face the San Jose Sharks. And if a shot at the division title was the price of the return of a healthy McDavid heading into playoffs, then it was one the Oilers will gladly pay.

“I’m good,” McDavid said after taking part in the Oilers morning skate. “Everything has been feeling good and I’m good to go.”

He returns to an Oilers lineup that went 1-1-1 in his absence, after getting hurt late in a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames on April 6.

“This was not a, ‘Let’s just sit out games to sit out games.’ There was obviously something there, it was bugging me and I was sitting out to feel better,” McDavid said. “This was not a matter of if it was playoffs or not, or whatever. Thankfully, we clinched a playoff spot and I had something bugging me and I needed to get it right.”

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McDavid wasn’t the only addition to the Oilers top line Monday, when he reunited with Zach Hyman on his right wing while welcoming trade deadline acquisition Adam Henrique on the left.

“It’s an exciting opportunity playing on the wing with him,” Henrique said. “Watching his game from up close has been pretty eye opening, so to get an opportunity to play with him is pretty cool.

“Me and Hyman are going to be fighting for the net-front. You just go out and play, I don’t really change anything in my game. Try to hit the booster a little bit every shift, but other than that, just go out and play hockey.”

McDavid’s return meant as many as three more chances where he could add to the 130 points (31 goals, 99 assists) he collected to sit third overall in points heading into the final week of the regular season. Not to mention, resuming the race against league scoring leader Nikita Kucherov (43 goals, 98 assists) of the Tampa Bay Lightning to see who could be the first to reach 100 assists since Wayne Gretzky in 1990-91.

“It’s another nice round number, everybody likes that,” McDavid said, shrugging it off. “It would be nice.”

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And something only three players have previously done in NHL history, including Gretzky 11 times, Mario Lemieux once and Bobby Orr once.

“In a way, it might mean more to us than him, probably,” said teammate Leon Draisaitl. “He’s obviously a very unselfish player in every way possible, so we want him to get there more than he does, probably.

“But it’s pretty incredible what he’s done this year.”

The least of which was climbing from being tied for 107th in league scoring when Kris Knoblauch was brought in as the Oilers new head coach on Nov. 13, to winding up in the top three.

But Knoblauch is focused more on what a healthy McDavid can bring to the playoff table for the Oilers.

“We were very cautious with this, we didn’t want it to persist and get worse and have it be a nagging thing that he had to play through,” the coach said. “We, our doctors and our training staff feel that he’s recovered and is good and we shouldn’t have any regression.”

Whether or not McDavid plays on the road to close out the schedule with back-to-backs against the Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche remains to be seen. But he didn’t want to go into the playoffs having to knock off any rust.

“I think it’s a balance of everything, a balance of being healthy, a balance of making sure you’re ready to go and making sure your game is where it needs to be,” McDavid said. “Going 20-plus days between games is not really an option for me, so I’ll get one in here today.”

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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