Devin Shore To Miss Time With Lower Body Injury

The Oilers have announced that Devin Shore is expected to miss at least a month after sustaining a lower body injury in Friday’s win over the Rangers. Shore has two points (1-1-2) in eight games this season.

While Shore is on the mend, the club could go with Ryan McLeod to fill in. Since being sent to Bakersfield, McLeod has five points in seven AHL games (1-4-5). He’d be my first choice to tab for the fourth line, though Tippett had Kyle Turris down the middle with Tyler Benson and Colton Sceviour in practice today. With the Oilers in Detroit for a game on Tuesday, we’ll see if McLeod gets the call before then.

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Mike Smith sounds like he’s still a way off from game action. He’s been listed as “day-to-day” for nearly three weeks. Goaltender Mikko Koskinen has played every minute since Smith went down with a lower body injury in Anaheim on October 19th. Stuart Skinner has got to be getting one of the starts in the coming week, as the Oilers play four in six beginning Tuesday night.

Tippett flexed his lines a little bit in practice today when he put Yamamoto on the third line with Derek Ryan and Warren Foegele. He opted to have Kassian on line two with Nuge and Drai, we’ll see if that carries over to Detroit on Tuesday.