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Something interesting happened when the Oilers took to the ice this morning for their morning skate: they did so without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
#Oilers morning skate lines: Hall-Arcobello-Eberle, Yakupov-Gagner-Hemsky, Hordichuk-Smyth-Petrell, Paajarvi-Lander-Hartikainen (RNH absent)
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 6, 2013
#Oilers defensive pairings at morning skate: Smid-Petry, NSchultz-JSchultz, Whitney-Potter
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 6, 2013
So what happened to Nugent-Hopkins? Officially nobody knows.
The always on top of it MSM is tweeting that he was hurt during the overtime period against Vancouver but if that's the case I'm left wondering why no of them thought to say anything before now. For the record, Nugent-Hopkins was on the ice for two shifts during that overtime.
For a team already without two of the centres - Shawn Horcoff and Eric Belanger - the loss of another would be devastating, even if just for one night. For now I'm just going to assume it something minor because the alternative isn't good.
One the other side of this Jamie Benn has to be licking his lips looking at a potential matchup against Mark Arcobello. Welcome to the NHL kid, this here is the deep end.