EDMONTON - Ales Hemsky's shoulder is damaged, but the Edmonton Oilers don't know how bad it is injured.

Oilers vs Kings

Photograph by : Ed Kaiser

ARTICLE TOOLS

• Printer friendly
• E-mail

Font:

• *
• *
• *
• *

It's certainly bad enough that he won't play against the San Jose Sharks tonight.

"He's gone for an MRI. He's not expected to be available for a little bit," said Edmonton Oilers coach Pat Quinn, who must feel like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Man, to borrow a line from SportsNet's Gene Principe.

The Oilers have lost a league-leading 146 man-games to injury or sickness, and they're only 25 games into the season, not even a third of the way through the NHL marathon.

The Oilers have used 29 players. They have goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin (back), defenceman Denis Grebeshkov (knee), and forwards Mike Comrie (mono), Fernando Pisani (colitis), Robert Nilsson (concussion symptoms), Ryan Stone (knee), Marc Pouliot (sports hernia) and Hemsky (shoulder) out.

Only four forwards -- Dustin Penner, Patrick O'Sullivan, Andrew Cogliano and Zack Stortini--have played every game. Defenceman Tom Gilbert has suited up for all 25, too.

"Amazing. I didn't know that," said Cogliano.

Contrast that with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who've had 11 skaters play all 22 games this year.

While Hemsky is out after a wallop from behind by Michal Handzus of the Los Angeles Kings, farmhands Ryan O'Marra and Colin McDonald are in the lineup tonight, having been recalled from the Springfield Falcons. McDonald will be the 30th player the Oilers have used this season.

Meanwhile, Liam Reddox was sent back to the American Hockey League farm club after playing nine games. If he had played 10 games, he would have had to clear waivers and the Oilers were worried that another team might claim him.

Bringing up farmhands is usually the way it works. Teams struggling call down to the farm, shuffle some deck chairs, first. Then, there might be an NHL trade.

There's only been three deals made this season (Chuck Kobasew from the Boston Bruins to the Minnesota Wild for a draft pick, a prospect and Craig Weller;Daniel Paille from the Buffalo Sabres to Boston for two draft picks;and Benoit Pouliot from Minnesota to the Montreal Canadiens for Guillaume Latendresse).

In addition, Andrew Ebbett (twice --Chicago and Minnesota), Drew Miller (Detroit) and ex-Oilers slugger Steve MacIntyre (Florida) have been claimed off waivers. MacIntyre was just recalled from the Panthers' AHL farm club in Rochester, which means the Oilers could see him on Dec. 7 in Florida.

"Liam gave us some good games early but slipped from a defensive standpoint. He didn't play with the same confidence," said Quinn, who will see what O'Marra and McDonald bring to the table.

O'Marra played six minutes in Ottawa against the Senators on Nov. 10 and was sent back. McDonald has never played an NHL game.

"We were going to call up just one guy, probably O'Marra, but with Hemsky, out ...these are the guys our coaches (Springfield)and our scouts recommended," said Quinn.

McDonald, a former second-round draft pick who went to Providence College, was projected to be a goal scorer, but he's not.

"We put him in a third-line role to crash and bang and he's settled into it. He's a tremendous penalty-killer. He and O'Marra are the No. 1 pair down there. Hopefully, they'll give us a shot in the arm," said Oilers assistant general manager Kevin Prendergast.

O'Marra has eight points in Springfield; his linemate McDonald has nine. Both have been dogged workers.

"Nilsson isn't cleared to suit up yet," said Quinn.

A well-deserved rest

The Oilers gave the players who got at least 20 minutes against Los Angeles time away from practice on Thursday, which meant Penner, Shawn Horcoff, Steve Staios, Sheldon Souray. Captain Ethan Moreau wasn't there, either.

Penner struggled against the Kings, but he's not hurt. Just a little tired.

"Penner's OK. His game wasn't very strong (L. A.), but that's the first off game he's had of the 25 he's played. That's pretty good. We would like them to be perfect every night, but that's not reality," said Quinn.

this 'n' that

Without Hemsky, Quinn might put Patrick O'Sullivan up with Penner and Sam Gagner ...He used Horcoff, J.F. Jacques and Gilbert Brule a large chunk of the time against Anze Kopitar's line in the L.A. game. They'll probably be out against Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau, if that's San Jose's top line tonight ... Khabibulin didn't skate on Thursday, which means backup goalie Jeff Deslauriers will get his fifth straight start. He's 3-3-1 with a 2.41 goals-against average and .920 save percentage.

jmatheson@thejournal.canwest.com