The Edmonton Oilers will have centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins back in the lineup Saturday night when they host the New York Rangers.
Nugent-Hopkins suffered crack ribs in a game against Vegas on Jan. 13.
“It’s feeling good now,” Nugent-Hopkins said.
The Oilers center remains third on the team in scoring with 31 points despite missing the last 18 games.
“I was feeling pretty good about the early part of my game, for sure. I think there were some areas I still wanted to clean up. I was getting some good bounces and finding a way to finish some chances. When you’re feeling good like that, it’s really tough to get an injury,” Nugent-Hopkins said.
“He was having one of his best offensive seasons in a long time,” head coach Todd McLellan said.
“I think part of that was he added a bit of risk to his game. He’s such a responsible player that he always seemed to be on the defensive side. But you have to calculate your risk a little bit. I felt like he was taking more risk and being more productive with it.”
The Oilers will be trying to snap a two-game losing streak. They’ve played several close games lately, including Thursday’s 4-2 loss to Nashville.
“We’ve made some mistakes right when we’re in games that have cost us immensely,” McLellan said. “I think we can clean that up.”
The Oilers expected lineup is:
Lucic – McDavid – Draisaitl
Cammalleri – Nugent-Hopkins – Aberg
Puljujarvi – Strome – Slepyshev
Pakarinen – Khaira – Kassian
Nurse – Russell
Klefbom – Benning
Sekera – Bear
Talbot
The Oilers and Rangers are on 630 CHED with the Face-off Show at 7 p.m. The game starts at 8:30 p.m.