The last time Edmonton Oilers fans got to see Mattias Ekholm take the ice in a game wasn’t a pretty sight.
He had stepped onto the ice for an April 11th game against the San Jose Sharks, his first since two weeks earlier against the Dallas Stars, and he lasted all of three shifts. Ekholm looked, to put it lightly, not good, as he stumbled multiple times, leaving the game very early.
Reports surfaced after that Ekholm could be out for the remainder of the season — playoffs included — with what was believed to be a potentially serious injury. Good news came as the playoffs kicked off, as Ekholm had been responding well to treatment, and just last week Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said the blueliner was now considered day-to-day and a possibility later in the Western Conference Final.
And during an optional skate Sunday afternoon in Edmonton, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug posted a video to X isolating Ekholm on the ice, where his movements looked sharp and fluid. He walked the blue line taking a shot, before skating backwards down into the Oilers defensive zone.
It is, again, a far cry from what we saw in April, and a great sign, though an exact timetable for his return hasn’t been set.
“We haven’t decided that if he’s travelling or not,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch Sunday. “If he’s able to join us sometime during the series, it would be a huge bonus for us, and right now, he’s on the ice with our optional skate.”
Knoblauch would add that the team had some idea of when guys would be able to return as the regular season wound down.
“We had an understanding that a lot of guys were really close to returning and being available very early in the playoff series, whether that was Game 1 or at somepoint, but that being said, we didn’t know how the team was going to respond,” he said. “Who was going to play with who? Who’s going to be in certain situations?
“That, for the coaching staff, we were uncertain about, but as for the health, we had a pretty good understanding when guys were going to be available and when they were going to be able to play. There was certain guys who probably could’ve played if it had been the playoffs at the end of the season, and we felt ‘why push that?’ It’s important that hopefully we’ve got a long playoff run and why have them play banged up through that entire time, when they could really benefit with some more time off.”
