Oilers get bad news on Connor McDavid’s return timeline to NHL action after Olympics originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Connor McDavid returns to Edmonton with an Olympic medal a different color than what he would’ve hoped for.
Now all the Oilers superstar can do is try and lead his NHL team on a strong run to end the season. Except he might have to wait a bit.
McDavid’s return to NHL action isn’t a given in the immediate.
The gold medal game for Canada against the United States was played Sunday, and then he had to fly all the way back from Italy.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has no plans to rush McDavid back to action.
“Yeah, I guess it all depends on numerous things,” Knoblauch told the Edmonton Journal. “Playing in the back-to-back would be difficult, and for him to play 23-24 minutes in back-to-back games after the Olympics, travelling from Europe? I don’t think that’s putting him in a very good position to help us. So, we’ll have to lean on other guys a lot more and hopefully he is healthy by the weekend to step right into the lineup.”
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The Oilers return to action Wednesday at the Anaheim Ducks.
They then play again on Thursday at the Los Angeles Kings.
If McDavid is “healthy by the weekend,” as Knoblauch says, that would mean he misses both of those games.
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Maybe there’s a scenario where he instead plays just one game of the back-to-back, or maybe plays a reduced minutes workload.
The Oilers certainly want their leader back on the ice, but it is fair to be smart with him coming off an intense tournament halfway across the world.
It’ll be something to monitor with McDavid and every other player who took part in the gold medal game. It might take a little while to get back up to speed in the NHL.
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