This in from the Edmonton Oilers practice, news that Evander Kane and Adam Henrique are still not practicing.
My interpretation. It has been stated by Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch that Henrique and Kane are both taking rest days in order to recuperate. The Oilers benefit from the very long break that occurs between the conclusion of the Los Angeles series and the beginning of the Vancouver series.
Additionally, we are aware that Kane skipped practices prior to the Los Angeles series before returning to play some of his finest hockey of the year.
Nevertheless, it would undoubtedly be preferable if both players were fit enough to participate in practices rather than only games, and the severity of Henrique’s injury is yet unknown. Henrique, who plays well on the top line with Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid, has been a valuable addition to the squad. Apparently, he
suffered a knock in Game Five against Los Angeles on Wednesday. He continued to take shifts until almost the very end of the game. However, on his last shift, he collided with a player from the Kings in the Edmonton crease, and you can see him testing his leg as a result. He immediately went to the changing room after leaving the rink.
2. Regarding the Leafs, and this isn’t meant to be offensive, but how many playoff series have the club that Kyle Dubas essentially created around god-sent Auston Matthews won since so many people told us for so long that he was a genius? The analytical method that concentrated on ability and on-ice possession ignored a few elements of the multi-variable analysis needed to assemble a successful squad. With new systems, it is frequently the case.
There was and is great excitement around these numbers, but they fail to account for the complexity of hockey.
One note: you are mistaken if you think I am arguing against the use of analytics. I favour more use of better analytics, numbers that dig into the individual performance of individual players, as opposed to trying to rate players by how their team does while they’re on the ice. How a team does when a player is on the ice is not always caused by that player. For example, if you put Connor McDavid with weak players, he’s going to have weak on-ice numbers, as he did in 2019-20 when he ranked 15th on the Oilers in Corsi (shots at net plus-minus).
If Corsi were a fair and accurate indicator of two-way prowess at even strength, I think we can agree McDavid would NEVER rank 15h on the Oilers over a full season, correct?
Final word on Dubas: his biggest mistake was around team composition, starting with the expensive signing of John Tavares, a solid player, yes, but his gargantuan contract made it hard to keep other useful players like Zach Hyman.
3. I loved Patrice Bergeron showing up to cheer on his old team on Saturday night.
