EDMONTON — “I’m ready to go. I’m always ready to go.â€
Zach Hyman is standing in front of his dressing room stall, still fully dressed after practice except for gloves and a helmet. Heâ€s in no hurry to get out of a room full of hockey players, media and people, a place heâ€s missed this fall.
Hyman hasnâ€t played a game since dislocating his right wrist and injuring some ligaments back on May 27, early in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars. Itâ€s been, as the kids say, a minute.
A minute that has felt more like a lifetime for a 33-year-old who knows there are a finite number of games left in any manâ€s NHL career, and heâ€s already missed a bunch — including a Stanley Cup Final.
But alas, we wonâ€t see Hyman when he becomes eligible to come off LTIR on Saturday versus Chicago. He has graduated, according to head coach Kris Knoblauch, to being listed as “week to week.â€
Which, in NHL coach speak, could mean anywhere between the following Saturday against Colorado and Round 1 of the playoffs in April.
As of today, Hyman enters the next phase of rehab, graduating from “Zach vs. the Healing Process†to “Zach vs. the Doctors.â€
“I’m going to tell you, ‘I’m ready to go,†because that’s how I feel,†Hyman said. “At the end of the day, the doctors are the ones who are there to protect you from yourself, at times, and make sure that when you do return that you are able and ready — and that’s how I feel.
“Having said that, they know more than I do.â€
And us poor sports writers? We would be a distant third in that pecking order.
Hereâ€s what weâ€re mighty sure of, though: All the things that come naturally to Hyman are the elements that have been lacking from Edmontonâ€s game, through another shaky start in another lacklustre October.
“A little tenacity, a little grit and getting it on the forecheck,†Knoblauch said. “Anytime you have a star-quality player like Zach it just helps the team, and moves other guys to the chairs they should be in.â€
Until they flashed a recognizable identity in the second and third periods of a 6-3 win over Utah on Tuesday, the Oilers had been a (less than) interesting mix of bored veterans and not-quite-ready-for-prime-time rookies.
The Matt Savoies, Ike Howards and David Tomaseks arenâ€t anywhere near being ready to drive this bus. But the Connor McDavids, Leon Draisaitls and Evan Bouchards were stuck somewhere between Sunrise, Florida, the Muskokas, and Leonâ€s pad in Portugal.
From one night to the next, the hands steering the wheel in Edmonton have belonged to varying degrees of driver — not nearly enough steering in the same direction at the same time.
An unattended rudder drifted into that Utah game. But then, trailing 2-0 after 20, somebody found something inside that Oilers room. They emerged as a team we recognized, like your dog coming home from the groomers after being lost in the woods for a month.
“The win aside, it was just good to see some good hockey there for a bit. Itâ€s been a little bit since we’ve seen some of that,†McDavid said on Wednesday. “You just saw the urgency and desperation go up, which we didn’t see a lot of in the first 10. So hopefully that can stick around.â€
Hyman, when he returns, should further that process.
“We’ve got some young forwards on the team that are kind of finding their way, and it’ll be good to get him back and everything that he provides,†McDavid said. “He skates well, he’s physical, he goes to the net hard — all that stuff that we’ve been missing.â€
You may have noticed that, after trying to bank a handful of passes off of Tomasekâ€s stick down low on the power play, McDavid and Draisaitl have moved on to other methods of scoring five-on-four. The 29-year-old Czech doesnâ€t need the pressure of filling Hymanâ€s net front spot on the power play, frankly, and should not be on this top unit at this stage of things, where he has spent 32 minutes and has two of his three points this season.
Normal is what both Hyman and the Oilers seek, and they wonâ€t get there until their top line right-winger and power-play net front man is back on the ice.
“We’ve had a lot of turnover to our lineup, whether it’s guys leaving or guys being injured. So it’s not easy when you have that much turnover to find your role, your place, where you fit in the lineup,†Hyman said. “I feel refreshed, honestly. Mentally refreshed, physically refreshed. First time in a long time I’ve had this much time off.
“It’s been fun to be able to feel normal again.â€
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