EDMONTON, AB – Forward Adam Henrique is close to making his return from injury and should be an option for the Oilers going into their Western Conference final game against the Stars.
“We believe it’s very close and we expect it early in the series, whether it’s Game 1, 2 or 3,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “But we’ll definitely see him again at some point.”
Henrique practiced in full Wednesday morning at Rogers Place on the second line alongside Leon Draisaitl and Dylan Holloway replacing Evander Kane, who was not on the ice for maintenance reasons before the flight. team to Dallas for the first matches. & 2 of the third round series Thursday and Saturday.
Henrique, 34, has a goal and an assist in six games in this playoffs, with his last appearance (and his only minutes of the second round) coming in Game 2 against the Canucks when he played 16 shifts and finished with minus-one in 11:36 of ice time.
Henrique has missed five games since the coaching staff’s decision to play him in Game 2 against Vancouver, although he wasn’t at 100 percent, with a few late call-ups due to an injury. Oilers who forced the coaching staff’s hand. But with a few more players returning over the last few games, they’ve had the luxury of letting Henrique take more time to recover, get back into shape and work his way to becoming an impact player in the third round.
“It has a lot to do with the situation of a lot of players, with a lot of question marks,” Knoblauch said of Henrique in Game 2 against Vancouver. “And right now, maybe we could have accommodated him, but we felt like we had a healthy body and he could spend more time resting and getting back to 100 percent. In the game that he played, we had a lot of question marks and we may have put him in play earlier than necessary, so at the moment we are very lucky.
“We move on to the third round and now we have a guy who can help us in this series.”
