Game Thread: Oilers vs Predators - No More Injuries, Okay.

In a couple of weeks I'll have been writing for the Copper & Blue for five years, and will be closing in on 900 posts. Obviously not one of those has been about an Oilers playoff game, I now that for sure. In fact no post on this site has ever been about an Oilers playoff game. I wonder though, how many of those nearly 900 posts have been about injuries? It feels like about half, maybe a little more.

Losing and injuries, has there been anything more constant than those two things over the last ten years of Oilers hockey. Injuries happen to every team, they're part of the game, but the Oilers have taken it to a new level, they turned it into an art form. This year Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, Connor McDavid, Nail Yakupov, Oscar Klefbom, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have all missed time, and that nowhere close to a complete list. And in the team's last game Brandon Davidson was added to the list.

Heading into the team's 50th game of the season there have already been two and a half seasons worth of games lost to injury. That's amazing. Of course, even without the injures the Oilers still wouldn't be a good team, we've seen enough of this team to know that, but the injuries certainly aren't doing them any favours.

Tonight the Oilers host the Predators in what will be their final game before the Oilers star game. For the Predators every game and every point matters now because if the playoffs were to start today they, like the Oilers would be on the outside looking in. They've made the big deal to shake things up, now it's time to get results.

For the Oilers this game means a whole lot less because they're almost certainly not making the playoffs this season. So the bar has been lowered for them, now it's about playing a good 60 minutes and hopefully not losing anyone else to injury. I won't be holding my breath for either one.