Without their top three left-shot defensemen, are the Edmonton Oilers in trouble?
Things aren’t exactly peachy in Edmonton these days.
After starting the season on a 9-1 tear through the league, some regression has reared its ugly head with Edmonton skidding to a 4-4 streak over the last eight games. They’ve had some tough losses where they were outplayed by the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres, Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars, but also had some assertive wins over the Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues, Jets and Chicago Blackhawks.
With goaltender Mike Smith out since Oct. 19 due to a lower-body injury, top-pairing defenseman Darnell Nurse out with a broken finger and third-pairing defenseman Slater Koekkoek sustaining a lower-body injury in the same game last Friday, things have gone from bad to worse.
During last night’s 4-1 loss to the Stars, defenseman Duncan Keith, who had stepped up to play top-pair minutes in Nurse’s wake, suffered what the team is calling an upper-body injury.
oilers announce duncan keith (upper body) is out for the rest of the game. he didn't take a shift in the final 12:48 of the second. he appeared to injure himself on this shift where he made a play at the blueline and skated to the bench slamming his stick. pic.twitter.com/HYfRieDeHH
— zach laing (@zjlaing) November 24, 2021The play was rather innocuous. The Oilers won the puck back to Keith who turned and made a routine pass along the blue line to teammate Evan Bouchard, but immediately winced as the puck left his stick. Head coach Dave Tippett confirmed Wednesday that Keith is being considered day-to-day, but there has to be some level of concern given the injury.
Dr. Harjas Grewal, a resident doctor at the University of Manitoba Family Medicine’s department who tweets about NHL injuries, said while “a bit extreme,” it’s possible Keith suffered a strain to his oblique or another muscle.
“I hope this isn’t a situation where he’s got a long-standing back issue which he is trying to play through, like Parayko last year,” Grewal continued.
Now, the Oilers’ left-side is depleted. Rookie Phillip Broberg is a likely candidate to slide up to the top pair alongside another young guy in Evan Bouchard, who has looked good playing in his first full NHL season. The other two are journeyman defenseman Kris Russell and William Lagesson, who has played just 27 NHL games.
The hope is for Edmonton that Keith won’t be gone for long. Edmonton has a good matchup with the Arizona Coyotes Wednesday, before beginning a more difficult stretch next week against the Vegas Golden Knights, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Seattle Kraken in the next week.
Edmonton’s right side of Bouchard, Cody Ceci and Tyson Barrie will need to step up big with their opposite side players banged up.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.