McDavid, Draisaitl ‘going to still be a while’ before returning for Oilers

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl won’t be returning for the Edmonton Oilers this week, coach Kris Knoblauch said Monday.

Neither forward played in Edmonton’s 5-4 win against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. McDavid sustained a lower-body injury during the second period of a 4-3 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets on March 20, and Draisaitl sustained an undisclosed injury during a 7-1 win against the Utah Hockey Club on March 18.

“They’re going to be still a while,” Knoblauch said after practice. “We’ll be playing a couple of games without them, at least. It’s good for those other guys that they know they’re going to get some more playing time.”

The Oilers host the Dallas Stars on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, SN1, TNT, truTV, MAX) before visiting the Kraken on Thursday. Edmonton will then host the Calgary Flames on March 29.

Draisaitl and McDavid are the second- and fourth-leading scorers in the NHL this season. Draisaitl has 101 points (49 goals, 52 assists) in 68 games; McDavid has 90 points (26 goals, 64 assists) in 63 games. Draisaitl had an 18-game point streak (27 points; 14 goals, 13 assists) end in the win against Utah, where he led all forwards with 22:23 of ice time.

Saturday was the first time Draisaitl and McDavid were each unavailable in the same game due to injury since McDavid arrived in Edmonton for the 2015-16 season.

“I think everybody feels it,” said forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who had a hat trick Saturday. “I think it’s a chance for everybody to step up and play their game and maybe play a little bit of a different role for certain guys. Obviously, you lose two of the best players in the game, we need to step up and we need to make sure that we’re sharp.

“I think the way we’ve been playing lately is starting to get to the way we want to be playing come playoff time -- making it tough to play against, not giving anything easy to the other team and building our offense from playing solid defensively.”

McDavid has missed seven games this season. He previously missed three because of an ankle injury sustained during a 6-1 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 28, then served a three-game suspension for cross-checking Vancouver Canucks forward Conor Garland on Jan. 18.

“We hope in the long run this is good for us,” Knoblauch said. “Connor and Leon, do we ever want them out of our lineup? No. Probably in the short term it’s harder for us to win games and move up in the standings and we want to win as many games as possible, but collectively for us as a team, we want to be at our best for the playoffs. That’s the most important thing, and this little break without having those two, maybe that helps us with other guys finding their game and are able to step it up.”

McDavid is averaging 22:08 of ice time this season. He extended his point streak to 13 games (19 points; four goals, 15 assists) with an assist on a goal by forward Jeff Skinner against the Jets.

It is uncertain when exactly McDavid was injured; he had six shifts in the second period against Winnipeg, with his final shift lasting 18 seconds before returning to the bench at 19:03. McDavid spoke with Oilers head athletic therapist T.D. Forss on the bench before the end of the period and did not return for the third.

Draisaitl missed his first game of the season against Winnipeg. He is averaging 21:39 of ice time per game.

The two have combined for 24 power-play goals (Draisaitl 15; McDavid nine). Skinner has not scored with the man-advantage in 60 games this season; defenseman Evan Bouchard has scored twice on the power play in 70 games.

“Guys are on the power play and on in the last minute, whether we’re up or down a goal, hopefully they can build a little confidence and feel good about it,” Knoblauch said.

The Oilers (41-24-5) are tied for second in the Pacific Division with the Los Angeles Kings, five points behind the Vegas Golden Knights.