Oilers missing RNH, Dickinson, Savoie as injuries pile up before season opener

The Oilers are heading into their season opener Tuesday against Vancouver without several key players, leaving Mike Babcock scrambling to reshape the roster.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins left practice Sunday with a lower-body injury and will miss the Canucks game at Rogers Place. Babcock expects Nugent-Hopkins back in roughly two weeks, potentially by mid-October when Edmonton returns from a southern California road trip. Jason Dickinson is also out for about two weeks.

The longer absences are steeper. Matt Savoie is not expected back for eight weeks. Mattias Janmark remains a ways away. Frederick Andersen, the goaltender, won't return until maybe December. The cascading injuries reverse some of the team's opening-night strategy—Nugent-Hopkins was set to centre the second line in place of Leon Draisaitl, allowing the two superstars to share ice time with the rest of the roster.

Draisaitl is back centering his own line during practice instead. Babcock's message to the team: injuries happen; figure out how to play through them. "Injuries are, in my opinion, just an excuse," he said. "You find ways to learn about your team. You just got to figure out how you play it. So we're going to figure out how to play it." Connor McDavid echoed the pragmatism. "You obviously want as many guys as healthy as you can right off the get-go, but it was just something minor so we'll have to do without him," McDavid said.

Mark Spector projected a forward group of Howard-McDavid-Hyman on the top line, followed by Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Kapanen and Jones-Michaels-Frederic, with depth depth from Formenton-Dach-Joseph. The reshuffled lines will take the ice Tuesday night.