McDavid. the current captain, has agreed to a contract extension after his contract with the oilers expires on April 5th.

admin | April 12, 2025 | Uncategorized | No Comments

After testing things out in the pre-game skate, the Edmonton Oilers captain will be in the lineup for Wednesday’s game against the St. Louis Blues.

The Oilers superstar hasn’t played since March 20 when he was injured in a game against the Winnipeg Jets

Even with McDavid’s return, the Oilers will still be far from full strength against the Blues as both Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins won’t be suiting up.

Draisaitl is still working his way back from an injury that he suffered on April 3, while Nugent-Hopkins is out due to an illness.

Oilers defenceman Jake Walman will also miss the game as he is listed as a scratch on the roster report.

The Oilers enter Wednesday’s game four points back of the Los Angeles Kings for second place in the Pacific Division.

Watch the Oilers-Blues game at 10 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet or Sportsnet+.

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AHL

Canadiens’ stars expect to rebound after uncharacteristic performance in loss to Sens

Eric Engels @EricEngels

April 12, 2025 – 1:03am

Montreal Canadiens' Nick Suzuki (14) tries to screen Ottawa Senators' goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) as the puck sails wide of the net during second period NHL action in in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/CP) — Montreal Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki (14) tries to screen Ottawa Senators’ goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) as the puck sails wide of the net during second period NHL action in in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/CP)

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OTTAWA — This was Lane Hutson as we haven’t seen him at this level — fumbling under pressure, passing off target, forcing more plays than he was executing, and doing all of it from start to finish in a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Now add in totally uncharacteristic performances for Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kaiden Guhle, and it’s easy to consider Friday’s game an anomaly.

Bad timing for one to pop up, no doubt—with the Canadiens a regulation win away from clinching their first playoff berth since 2021—but not fin du monde type stuff.

The math is still heavily in their favour, and a game against Toronto is on tap Saturday before season-closing ones against the Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes are to be played in Montreal next week.

There’s plenty of opportunity for the Canadiens’ best players to rebound, and ample reason to believe they will. They’ve carried their team to the one-yard line and one bad down from there isn’t likely to lead to three more.

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Still, like everyone else on the Canadiens, these players need to undo the one troubling trend that emerged early in their most recent six-game winning streak and finally bit them right in the you-know-what in their first loss to the Senators this season: Their starts need to be better.

“I think just being mentally sharp right from the start and not tiptoeing into the game,” said Hutson. “We’ve got to go out and take the game and play hard right from the start.”

It’s what the Canadiens hadn’t done in four of the six games they played coming into Friday’s game.

Instead, they surrendered early momentum in all of them—and leads in three.

They did it again Friday, but the difference, after allowing a goal 28 seconds into the game, is they finally lost.

The good thing is losses often create the urgency wins can’t.

Martin St. Louis didn’t disagree with that after the game, and he also didn’t disagree with the probability his best players will rise to the occasion and instill that urgency his team needs right now.

“I feel they respond,” said the coach. “I feel these guys have responded all year. They’re a proud group.

Oilers