The Oilers have lost 2 players due to illness.

More early speedbumps for the Oilers.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
The Oilers have lost 2 players due to illness.
Daniel Lea/CSM/Zuma

The Edmonton Oilers are facing some very early challenges in the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season, and you have to feel a little for newly appointed head coach Dave Tippett who is now stuck trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Of course Oilers fans will already know that earlier this week it was reported that veteran defenseman Adam Larsson would be out for the foreseeable future after suffering a fracture that is expended to keep him out for a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks while he recovers. That was the first real speed bump that the Oilers hit this season and no doubt they were hoping it would be the only one they would face this early on, however that will not be the case. 

It was TSN Oilers insider Ryan Rishaug who first broke the news on Saturday morning when he revealed that both Oilers forward Alex Chiasson and Oilers forward Josh Archibald would not be ready to go for Saturday night's matchup against the Los Angeles Kings. According to Rishaug both of the forwards are out due to illness, an illness that Rishaug is describing as the "flu." The Oilers have now confirmed that news via head coach Dave Tippett.

"It's not ideal but we'll deal with it and the two guys that are going in there are anxious to play, so that's good," said Tippett.

The Oilers also revealed the identity of the 2 players that would be stepping in for Chiasson and Archibald tonight while confirming the news of their absence. According to the official announcement it will 26 year old Danish forward Patrick Russell who will step in for his first game of the regular season and he will be joined by fellow 26 year old forward Tomas Jurco who will also be stepping in for his first game of the regular season. No disrespect to Russell here but considering the fact that he has only just 6 games of NHL experience under his belt it is easy to see why Tippett would describe the situation this evening as less than ideal.

Unfortunately these are the realities of the regular season, and the Oilers will have to continue to march forward while hoping that the flu won't keep them out much longer.


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