The Edmonton Oilers moved Jordan Eberle to the long-term injured reserve list on Thursday, but that doesn’t mean he’s still has a long road ahead of him.
In fact, Thursday also marked Eberle’s first skate with his teammates since he sustained a shoulder injury during the preseason. He hopes to resume practicing today.
“It’s sore a little bit, but other than that I’m pretty close to 100% in terms of shooting and puck handling,” Eberle told the Edmonton Journal.
He’ll be joining an interesting team when he is ready. While Edmonton is 4-7-0, Connor McDavid has lived up to the hype thus far and Nail Yakupov is enjoying what might be the start of a breakout season. It’s made the Oilers dangerous offensively even without Eberle, who was their scoring leader last season.
Edmonton also overcame a 3-0 deficit against the Montreal Canadiens last night and was competitive in its contests against Minnesota and Los Angeles before that. Still, none of that changes the Oilers’ record and their defense and goaltending remain points of concern.
Getting Eberle back would certainly be a big boost for the team though.
Eberle should be back soon. Oil have many contracts with performance bonuses. Extra space gives flexibility. https://t.co/gZIlKJtAK2
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 29, 2015
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