The Edmonton Oilers certainly got a trick, not a treat as they will be without their captain for the foreseeable future. McDavid suffered an ankle injury against the Blue Jackets and will miss the next 2-3 weeks, translating to between 6-11 games.

McDavid has already been seen on the ice skating which is good news. His injury appears more on the mild side. Any team should be able to survive and win games without one player, no matter how good that player is. The Florida Panthers went 5-3-0 in the 8 games that Barkov was out.

Unfortunately the Edmonton Oilers simply have not been good enough, even with #97. It's not enough to simply survive without McDavid, the entire team needs to step up and perform far better than they already have.

Pickard gets the start tonight against the Predators after a brutal game by Stuart Skinner. Skinner clearly has not been anywhere close to good enough but I find it hard to put any of the Oilers woes on Skinner. This team simply has struggled to produce any consistent offense. Is there a single game this year that the Oilers lost where if Skinner had posted a 0.920SV% it would have resulted in an Oilers victory?

The team in front of Skinner completely collapsed against the Blue Jackets and could not stop any form of zone entry. We can focus on goaltending costing the team more if the Oilers are able to score 4+ goals and still lose a game. When the team can barely manage to score a single goal there are more pressing concerns.

Tonight we will see Noah Philp make his NHL debut along with the return of Drake Caggiula to the lineup. Philp was excellent out of training camp and pre-season but was sent to the AHL to play top line minutes and continue developing (the player missed all of last season). I'm looking forward to seeing his debut.

This will not be Caggiula's first game as an Oiler but it will be his first since signing back with the team last year. Caggiula may be small but he is quick and not afraid to be physical. The Oilers need far more of that throughout their lineup and right now I think he is a better option than Derek Ryan.

Maybe this McDavid injury is a blessing in disguise which will force the rest of this team to up their own game and contribute. We will know more in a few hours when Edmonton faces off against the Predators.

Thanks for reading.

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