Kapanen comes in from the cold to become Oilers hero

National Post

16-05-2025

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How difficult is it as a coach to get a read on players sitting out for an extended period of time, and whether they can help? They can lose their enthusiasm after being a spectator for a month.
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'It's a difficult situation for these guys (Kapanen, Stecher, Jeff Skinner, Derek Ryan) where we're going long stretches. It's not like regular season, where a player might miss three games in a row and he's back in,' said Knoblauch. 'In the playoffs, things are going well, there's no need to change things because the next game is so important to win.'
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'Right now it's tough to gauge. Are they engaged, involved? We don't really practise and if we do, it's short, and during series it's mostly pre-game skates. We try and keep them engaged to where they stand if we have injuries or somebody's not playing well. It's not like they're forgotten, but the worst part of my job is telling players they're not playing,' said Knoblauch.
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So why did Arvidsson draw the short straw for Kapanen after Game 3 against Vegas? Was it just losing 4-3 on that last second goal by Reilly Smith?
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'There was nothing I saw to take Arvidsson out. It was just to give us more physicality, a guy chomping at the bit. Arvidsson, especially late in the L.A. series and early in the Vegas series, contributed on four key goals. Offensively he was helping a lot in a fourth-line role with Podkolzin and (Mattias) Janmark,' said Knoblauch, who has sat Jeff Skinner for 10 straight games after he started in Game 1 against L.A., and Derek Ryan hasn't played at all.
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Mattias Ekholm, whose last game was April 11 against San Jose, has gone from week-to-week to day-to-day with his undisclosed injury — a suspected leg or core muscle issue — according to Knoblauch. 'I'm not anticipating him being ready for Game 1 or 2 but we're optimistic sometime in Round 3 he'll join us,' said Knoblauch, who has a solid top six right now with Evan Bouchard and Brett Kulak, Darnell Nurse and Stecher and Jake Walman and John Klingberg, but knows how important Ekholm is to the sturdiness on the back end, even jumping on a moving playoff train.
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'To expect that Ekholm will be the Ekholm we saw last year, that's not the case, whether that takes one game, two, five or six. But he'll help us in some aspect immediately after being cleared by our doctors. We're not in dire need to insert him until ready but the biggest part will be on the penalty kill. He's been a mainstay, the best guy there for my two years,' said Knoblauch.
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Pickard, who's out with an apparent leg injury, won't be up and running for the start of the third round, either. 'But same timeline as Ekholm,' said Knoblauch, who has farmhand Olivier Rodrigue as backup to Stuart Skinner. 'Certainly not Game 1, but some time in the middle of the round.'
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This 'n that: Corey Perry, who has five goals and seven points in the playoffs, turned 40 Friday, the second-oldest playoff contributor right now behind Carolina's Brent Burns. He's only six years younger than Knoblauch. 'We joked about his speed and skating and he said he never had it so that hasn't changed much, even from when he was 22 years old,' laughed the Oilers coach. 'He's had a great career because he's gritty, he's got fire but most importantly he's an extremely smart hockey player.' … McDavid crashed into the end boards on a backcheck along with Zach Hyman in Vegas in Game 5 and was shaken up a bit, appearing to get a cut on his face, and maybe some other bruises, but Knoblauch says he's fine … If Dallas had beaten Winnipeg Thursday to end their series, Game 1 of the Western final would have been in Dallas Saturday. Now, the Oilers are probably off until middle of next week … It's also Jeff Skinner's birthday Friday. He's 33 … Injured players like Ekholm and Pickard can use the extra time but others get into a playoff routine. Knoblauch is leery of too much rest. 'We didn't play well coming out of the Christmas break or the 4 Nations in February. But at this time of year, health and energy levels is the most important thing,' said Knoblauch … Hyman leads the playoffs in hits with 78 in his 11 games, with 13 in Game 5 in Vegas … The Oilers are rolling now with eight wins in the last nine games but coming off the Game 7 loss to Florida in the finals last June, it was hard for the disappointed Oilers to get ramped up for the regular season, and that included Knoblauch. 'I was standing behind the bench in exhibition and in regular season and I was thinking, 'This isn't Game 7 of the finals.' And I'm in a suit, not like the players in equipment, involved in the play,' he said … Knoblauch on playoff hardness: 'Some guys fade and some guys wilt. We're lucky to have a lot of guys who step up.'
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