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Things were looking very promising for the Edmonton Oilers. They’ve won all six exhibition games so far this year and have two more, both against the Vancouver Canucks, to wrap up the preseason schedule. Unfortunately for them, there is reason to panic as one of their star players was seriously injured in last night's game.
The Oilers were facing the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night when Kyle Chipchura collided with Oilers star Jordan Eberle. Eberle went into the boards shoulder first, and appeared to tweak his shoulder at an awkward angle. Eberle left for the dressing room and did not return to the game. He left Rexall Place after the game with his arm in a sling.
The Edmonton Oilers will find themselves without Eberle for four-to-six weeks the club announced.
“I left the puck for him and he kind of popped it through the guy’s skates,” said Oilers centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, describing the play. “Some guy squished him against the boards. I don’t know exactly the extent or anything, but it’s obviously a big loss for us if he’s out a day or who knows?
“As soon as you see something like that and the guy is in obvious pain and he comes to the bench, it’s a terrible situation and you are just hoping the best for the guy,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “You’re hoping it’s maybe a little stinger, and it’ll go away, but you don’t know at the time. There’s obviously the possibility that it might be more serious, but you hope that it’s not. In this game, stuff like that does happen and you try to protect yourself as much as possible.”
“He’s a big part of our team and now we just have to try and pick up the slack where it needs to be and we have to play for him.”
Eberle is the Oilers’ top right winger and would be tough to replace in the lineup if out for any extended amount of time. The 25-year-old is a key component to the Oilers success after averaging 27 goals per every 82 games since entering the league in 2010.
McLellan used a combination of Nail Yakupov, Rob Klinkhammer, Lauri Korpikoski and Anton Slepyshev on the right side of the line that features Nugent-Hopkins and Benoit Pouliot in the 4-0 win over the Coyotes.
“A number of guys did really good jobs filling in,” McLellan said. “We don’t want to lose Jordan, but when we did, it made us manage our bench and be alive and be alert. We haven’t had to do that yet, so it was a good experience for us.”
This is a bad loss for Edmonton.
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Eberle with what appears to be a shoulder injury sustained behind the net, left the bench shortly after&didn't return pic.twitter.com/g8OsLUXQgg
— Stephanie (@myregularface) September 30, 2015
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