EDMONTON, AB - Thursday's Oilers practice at Downtown Community Rink might have appeared to be an optional skate, given the absence of more than five players. Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan confirmed, after the fact, it wasn't.
The bench boss kept a handful of players off the ice to rest and rehab.
"I didn't make today an optional. I told five players they weren't skating, just to get them the rest," said McLellan.
Those five players included Oilers Captain Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Larsson and Oscar Klefbom. Kris Russell also didn't skate and neither did Tobias Rieder, who will be sidelined for probably a month, per McLellan.
"There are players that have played a lot of hockey and they're going to play a lot of hockey," McLellan added. "We've had some travel - it's the only three-day break we're going to get - and if we err at all, we're going to err on the side of rest rather than fatigue."
Each of the five players absent average more than 20 minutes of ice time a night. Darnell Nurse is also a member of the 20-minute club, averaging 22:03 per night, but he skated on Thursday.
"The three forwards, Connor, Nuge and Leon, they're well over 20 minutes a night," said McLellan. "That's not going to change all year. It was also a maintenance day for a couple of the guys that are beat up."
BLOG: McLellan gives his core a rest
"If we err at all, we're going to err on the side of rest rather than fatigue," said McLellan
