Major injury to Edmonton Oilers centre, out until after Olympic break in late February

This in from the Edmonton Oilers, news that centre Adam Henrique will be out until after the Feb. 6-to-24 Olympic break ends.

“The Oilers have placed Adam Henrique on injured reserve. The veteran forward is expected to return following the Olympic break.”

My take

1. If you’ve been hoping for years to see the Oilers go with three scoring lines, you’re about to get your wish. In fact, you got your wish in Edmonton’s 6-2 win over Nashville, when the defensive-minded and offensively challenged Henrique went out with injury, creating a high octane third line of Jack Roslovic, Matt Savoie and Ike Howard.

The three buzzed around and Savoie was in on one goal, though it was when he out with Curtis Lazar and Mattias Janmark. But the Roslovic-Savoie-Howard line created three Grade A shots, two by Howard and one by Roslovic, and kept the puck in the offensive end.

Can they do that consistently? Can they play well enough defensively to merit third line status? We shall see. Howard, for one, looked dangerous every time he took the ice against Nashville, and he’s reportedly played well on defence in Bakersfield, where he was also a scoring ace.

2. Henrique, who will be 36 in February, has lost a step in his skating speed this year, but he’s still strong on defence, on the PK and on faceoffs. In the playoffs last year he amped up his hitting. His playing time is down a minute per game from last season, but it’s hard to imagine he won’t be Edmonton’s fourth line centre come playoff time, at least if he’s healthy.

3. The Oilers say Henrqiue will be back after the Olympic break, but Edmonton Oilers injury reports are written in sand on the beach. They constantly change, almost always with the player out much longer than was first announced. We’ve seen this scenario play out with Viktor Arvidsson, Mattias Ekholm, Trent Frederic, Kasperi Kapanen, Jake Walman and, most recently, Tristian Jarry in the past two seasons.

4. Henrique and Curtis Lazar have been the Oil’s most reliable defensive centre, but both have struggled to muster much on the attack, with Henrique’s chipping in on just 1.4 Grade A shots at even strength per game (15 minutes even strength). By. comparison Connor McDavid is at 4.2 per game, Leon Draisaitl 3.6 per game.

Edmonton’s faced a real team crisis this year in the lack of production and weak defending of the third and fourth lines. It could well be, however, that this trend is about to change. Howard, Savoie and Roslovic may not end up as a third line, but they’re all solid enough players. Roslovic has much to prove on defence as a centre, but he’s demonstrated he can be a Top 6 winger on the attack. Savoie hasn’t done well enough to stick in the Top 6 but he’s got the grit, hustle and skill to stick in the Bottom Six and help the Oilers win there.

The wildcard for Edmonton is players like Howard and fellow AHLers Quinn Huston, Connor Clattenburg and big centre Josh Samanski, who just made the German Olympic team. Can one or two of them make an impact on the third or fourth line for Edmonton? It’s a key question for the Oilers this season, especially with the less than expected performances of Andrew Mangiapane and Trent Frederic.

At the Cult of Hockey

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