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Breaking: Insider confirms major injury to Oilers Oscar Klefbom.
Daniel Lea/CSM/Zuma

Breaking: Insider confirms major injury to Oilers Oscar Klefbom.

Big hit for the Oilers.

HockeyFeed

HockeyFeed

Edmonton Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom will be out for quite a while. 

The Oilers defenseman was injured on Tuesday night when his team faced off against the Colorado Avalanche, forcing him to leave the game. Klefbom would never return to that game and following the contest newly appointed Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock had made it clear that this type of- injury would requirea matter of weeks and not days for Klefbom to make a full recovery.

Well we now have confirmation of that fact with a much more precise time table for Klefbom's recovery thanks to a report from Sportsnet National Hockey League insider John Shannon. According to Shannon the 25 year old blue liner now requires surgery in order to repair the damage in his injured figure and that will now push his time table for recovery to 6 to 8 weeks. Needless to say that's quite a lengthy period of time at this important stage io the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season.

This marks yet another injury for Klefbom who has struggled to remain healthy for any significant length of time during his tenure as a member of the Oilers and it likely could not have come at a worse time for both the player and the organization. The Oilers have just begun to turn their season around since firing former head coach Todd McLellan and bringing in formerly retired head coach Ken Hitchcock and an injury to a core player like Klefbom is exactly the type of thing that could derail that bounce back from the team. 

A big part of the credit for the Oilers turn around also has to go to 30 year old former Kontinental Hockey League goaltender Mikko Koskinen who has simply been outstanding in the 16 games he has appeared in for the Oilers this season. That being said a new goalie in a new system can also be impacted by a major shift on the blue line and the loss of Klefbom for up to 2 months would certainly qualify. 

Prior to the injury Klefbom had appeared in 31 games on the season and recorded 3 goals and 12 assists for a total of 15 points and a plus minutes rating of +1.

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