EDMONTON - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is taking a myopic view of all matters pertaining to his wonky left shoulder, so as far as the Edmonton Oilers marquee centre is concerned there’s no need to consider the possibility of surgery down the road.

He said he’s been good up until he was hit in the overtime period of Monday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks. And after a few days of strengthening and conditioning, he’s ready to go again.

“It’s feeling good. I feel confident I’ll be ready to go,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who didn’t play in Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars, but was back on the ice Thursday. He expects to play in the Oilers’ back-to-back set against the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets, a road trip that gets underway Saturday afternoon at Joe Louis Arena.

“I have to make sure I’m taking care of it, but with a (compacted) schedule like this everybody has to take care of their body. So if there’s anything nagging at you, it’s that much more important to make sure you do.”

If its advice Nugent-Hopkins ever needs, he doesn’t need to look far.

Taylor Hall had his left shoulder surgically repaired last April. Ales Hemsky had his right shoulder repaired in 2010-11, which was just one year after he had the left one dealt with. Shawn Horcoff, too, has had to have work done on a shoulder.

But, for now, the Oilers are going to use an off-ice program designed to strengthen the area in the hopes that Nugent-Hopkins can continue playing.

He will get four days off between games by the time the puck is dropped in Detroit and next week — the Oilers have a three-day gap between games. That’s another stretch that has been targeted as a point where the 19-year-old will concentrate on more off-ice work.

The trouble is that there’s no way of forecasting what could happen with hits and jolts in games. It was a hit in the overtime period against the Canucks that set him off track again.

Nugent-Hopkins first had issues with his shoulder in his rookie campaign, missing 20 games. He then left the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League in December to do some strengthening and conditioning in Edmonton before playing for Canada at the world junior championship in Ufa, Russia.

“A lot of guys went through the same thing I’m going through, so it is good for me to get a feel for how they dealt with everything. I just have to make sure I take care of it,” said the centre, who has five assists but is still looking for his first goal of the season. “We haven’t really explored that option yet (surgery), but I’m not sure. If the time comes, I’ll have to make a decision on that.

“I never feel it when I’m getting hit. It’s random. But up until the other night, it has been feeling really good. I just want to make sure it’s ready to go. Before the juniors, I wanted to make sure it was strong and that I wasn’t going to have any incidents. I have to make sure I’m keeping it strong.

“I don’t want to let that area go so if it’s feeling weak — I have to take care of it right away.”

Oilers head coach Ralph Krueger said Nugent-Hopkins will get into some contact drills Friday, but he isn’t expecting his young star to have problems throughout the season.

“We believe it’s something we can get under control,” Krueger said. “We feel we can bring him to a point where he will be pain-free for the rest of the season. What kind of hits, what kind of situations, what kind of battles does he end up in? Irrelevant of how he feels, new things can pop up, but I do feel we’re getting this under control.

“The interesting thing with this injury is that we took the game off to have really good four days of training off-ice. Short term there was a price to play not having Nugent-Hopkins in the lineup, but we believe this period of time will bring him almost back up to 95-98 per cent. I’m optimistic.”

jireland@edmontonjournal.com

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