Report: McDavid & Spooner both missing from the Oilers morning skate.

The Edmonton Oilers are without some very important names at their morning skate, but the good news is that things do not sound overly serious at this time.

There was some concern this morning when both Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid as well as recently acquired forward Ryan Spooner were absent from the start team's practice and that concerned only grew over time. Neither McDavid nor Spooner would ever show up to the skate and as you would expect the questions came flooding in for head coach Ken Hitchcock when he was made available to the media following that practice. 

First we will start with the bad news. Ken Hitchock appeared to confirm that both McDavid and Spooner are banged up or dealing with some kind of illness when he confirmed to the media that both players are currently "fighting ailments," although what that means exactly is unclear at this time. It could be any number of things and it was clear based on Hitchcock's tone as well as his choice of words that he was not going to be giving any more info than that to the reporters in attendance. 

The good news is that whatever these ailments are they do not appear to be at all serious, at least not for the time being. Hitchcock also told reporters that he expects both McDavid and Spooner will be available for the Oilers when they take on the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Monday night. The fact that they are playing on the same day that they skipped practice would seemingly indicate that each man just needs some extra rest and recovery time, but I suppose it's still possible that either man is a late day scratch just prior to puck drop this evening. 

 Spooner has been udnerwhelming in his 8 games sicne joining the Oilers with just 1 goal and no assists to his name as well as a plus minus rating of -5 with Edmonton thus far. McDavid on the other hand remains not only the Oilers best player but perhaps their only real hope of competiting on a meaningful level this season. Through 26 games this season he has 14 goals and 21 assists for an absurd 35 points and a plus minus rating of +2 on the season.

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