Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid is expected to be sidelined for at least a week with an upper body injury suffered vs. the Winnipeg Jets.
While an exact timeline hasn’t been determined as of yet, the club announced that they expect to be without their captain for 1-2 weeks. McDavid was in visible discomfort as he headed to the bench with 4:20 remaining in the 3rd period and did not return to the ice for the remainder of the game.
Head coach Jay Woodcroft told reporters after the contest that he believed the injury was muscular and not anything that would sideline the reigning Hart Trophy winner for an extended period of time. “It didn’t appear to be anything,” Woodcroft elaborated, “it appeared to be muscular more than anything to me as I watched during the play.”
While the team is being vague with the exact nature of the injury, Jets defender Josh Morrissey and McDavid were tangled up in the 1st period and fell hard to the ice. Later that evening, after crossing the blue line to chase down a Zach Hyman chip in, McDavid appeared to slow down and reach for his left hip. As he exited the ice, the former 1st overall pick seemed to be fidgeting with his equipment in the same area.
The injury is one Edmonton can ill afford at the moment. Not only are they losing arguably the best player in the league for the foreseeable future, but the team is off to a slow start to boot, sporting a 1-3-1 record through their first 5 games.
In all likelihood, the upper body injury means Edmonton will be without McDavid when they host the Calgary Flames in the Heritage Classic outdoor game at Commonwealth Stadium on October 29th.
McDavid, 26, currently sits in 2nd place on the Oilers with 8pts (2G,6A) trailing only Leon Draisaitl (9pts) for the team lead.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Connor Mah. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.