“Not having him? It’s massive… he’s a huge piece, a key piece. After every period, he’s never too high, never too low. He is a cliché. He grinds, he does the little things right. He’s a leader in our room”
Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman was injured in the first period of Game 4 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars and didn’t return. The Oilers winger was injured after being hit by Stars forward Mason Marchment. Photo by Sam Hodde /Getty Images
Edmonton Oilers winger Zach Hyman’s playoff ride is probably over, one win from another trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
Hyman, who took an innocuous-looking drive-by check from Dallas forward Mason Marchment on Hyman’s fifth shift of Game 4 on Tuesday, will be operated on to repair an undisclosed upper-body injury — a body slam for the first-line forward who was the was leading the league in hits in the playoffs.
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“He’s likely done for the season. He’s having surgery today,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, who wouldn’t say what body part was damaged, but it was likely his wrist or shoulder.
“We’ll just leave it as upper-body… he’s our everything out there. Last year he scored 70 goals (54 in regular-season) and numerous , important, bit goals (16) in the playoffs,” said Knoblauch.
Indeed, Hyman’s finger-prints are all over the Oiler game plan nightly, just as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are. Hyman, who has five goals an 11 points, plays right side on the top line with Connor McDavid, he’s on the powerplay as a net-front guy, sharing it with Corey Perry, and, this spring, he’s been killing penalties with McDavid on their third forward unit.
The Hyman sour-note follows on the heels of another to third-line right winger Connor Brown, who missed Game 4 because he may have a concussion after he was steam-rolled by Dallas defenceman Alex Petrovic in Game 3 in Edmonton.
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So the Oilers may not be losing many games, 11-2 since opening the playoffs with two straight losses in Los Angeles, but now they are losing bodies as they lead the Stars 3-1.
Hyman and Marchment came together in the neutral zone halfway through the opening period. Hyman, who is 15 hits behind Blake Coleman’s all-time best 126 (Tampa Bay, 2020) in a playoff season, immediately dropped his stick after the drive-by. He skated to the bench and hustled down the tunnel, under the stands.
Certainly Hyman not returning in game after being hurt was a red-flag for a guy who has big pain threshold. Remember he took a deflected Evan Bouchard slap shot in the face in December and came back against Florida wearing a full visor after his mangled nose was reset. So while Hyman was outside the Oilers dressing room post-game to congratulate his teammates after the nail-biter, Hyman was hiding his pain.
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Knoblauch moved his forward chess pieces around the board expertly for the last two and a half periods, with players farther down the lineup like Kasperi Kapanen and Viktor Arvidsson, in for Brown, stepping up.
But, they are now down two of their top three right-wingers.
What do they do for Game 5 in Dallas?
They could potentially go 11 and 7, bring defenceman Mattias Ekholm back for his first game in over six weeks — they have been winning so haven’t needed him even as he’s gotten healthier — and go a forward short.
In Game 4, Leon Draisaitl played over eight minutes in the third as Knoblauch kept throwing him out there, up a goal in the nail-biter until the empty-netters by Kapanen and Adam Henrique.
Right now, the extra healthy forwards are left-winger Jeff Skinner, who played the first game of playoffs in Los Angeles but that’s all, centre Derek Ryan and winger Max Jones, who haven’t dressed in post-season.
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So, it’s an issue.
The Oilers overcame the injury to Hyman in Game 4, shutting the door in the third period, holding the Stars to just four shots — the second straight playoff game they’ve done that. They got the win in the highly-entertaining game because goalie Stu Skinner saved them in the first 20 minutes with his 16 stops but the Hyman loss looms large.
“Not having him? It’s massive… he’s a huge piece, a key piece. After every period, he’s never too high, never too low. He is a cliché. He grinds, he does the little things right. He’s a leader in our room,” said Skinner.
Nugent-Hopkins, who the first NHL player in 35 years to record multiple points in the first four games of a Conference Final, is a leader, too. But, Hyman has brought something black and blue to the playoff stage with all those hits.
“You’ve seen his physicality, it’s important to our game,” said Nugent-Hopkins
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“We’re going to need it from other people filling the gap, obviously, in however many games we have left and we’ll wait to see about Zach. Everybody wants to step up, everybody’s chomping at the bit to get out there. Tonight, it felt like we were doing this for Zach, getting the job done for him.”
Hyman is on the first line with Connor McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins, their best player in this series (nine points in four games). He also alternates net-front on the power play with Corey Perry, who scored there in Game 4 and also is on the third forward pair on the penalty kill with McDavid.
“He means everything to us, he’s a workhorse, a dog on a bone on the puck. The way he was forechecking and hitting and finishing like he was in Game 3, that’s Zach Hyman,” said Perry.
So we’ll see what Knoblauch’s plan is for Game 5 Thursday. The Oilers defence corps have been terrific, but maybe they finally give Ekholm a seat at the table after not playing since April 11 and go with seven D and 11 forwards.
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Or maybe they bring Jeff Skinner into the picture? He would seem to have a leg up on Ryan or Jones.
“Going into the third period I had the luxury of double-shifting Leon. The conversation with him was ‘get prepared to play a lot of minutes,’” said Knoblauch.
“Podkolzin, Kapanen, (Mattias) Janmark picked up where they left off earlier in the playoff run. (Trent) Frederic is new to us and starting to contribute. Everybody stepped up and the defence also did a very good job moving the pucks out so we didn’t have to be in the defensive zone, as much.”
Draisaitl came away very impressed.
“I thought we dealt with it well (no Hyman). Guys farther down the lineup had elevated minutes. Arvy, Kappy they stuck out. They were really good,” he said.
Pivotal face-off win
The Oilers were badly beaten in the face-off circle (Oilers won just 39 per cent) in the game but Draisaitl won a pivotal draw in the Oilers end to help set up the Kapanen goal with two and a half minutes left.
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“I certainly felt I was struggling a bit on the face-off dot (9-9). They’re a good face-off team, they have righty-lefty everywhere and that helps a lot, but there were numerous little plays on that (empty-net) goal. It’s like a domino effect,” said Draisaitl.
“Nurse with a really good pick, Kulak with good patience and a high flip, a great read by Kapanen. Just a lot of smart hockey plays and a big goal for us.”
This ‘n that
Oilers forward Evander Kane also missed the last five or six minutes of the second period, leaving the bench for an undisclosed reason, but the winer was back for the third, and played four minutes.
Bouchard gave a cheeky slash to the same left foot of Roope Hintz, the same foot that Nurse whacked in Game 2 which had Hintz in a foul verbal mood. Hintz missed Game 3 but played 17 minutes and was 10-5 on face-offs Tuesday.
The Stars have never come back from a 3-1 playoff series deficit.
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Perry now has 60 playoff goals. He’s tied for fourth (Brad Marchand) among active players with Alex Ovechkin (77), Sidney Crosby (71) and Evgeni Malkin (67), top three.
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