Despite the Oilers' apparent health in the playoffs, the one person the Oilers are missing is Adam Henrique. Henrique was great when he was healthy and the further the Oilers get, the more they'll need him back with the team.
With new reports coming out about Henrique's health, it seems like Knoblauch has a lot to think about. Henrique is a huge contributor, but it may be advantageous to leave him on the shelf until he gets back to perfect health.
Knoblauch has directly said that he doesn't want to mess with a winning lineup, and with Henrique still not 100% health, they may continue to keep him out even if he could push through the injury.
This is huge news, but also a huge decision. On the one hand it's great to hear that Henrique is almost perfectly healthy and ready to return, since the Oilers need all the help they can get. But also, if the Oilers try to rush things with Henrique and he comes back and gets injured again, that could be terrible for the Oilers going forward.
The issue is that the Oilers just won game 1 and their lineup is obviously not going to change. If you have to bring Henrique in, you have to bring someone out and the Oilers may not want to shake up a winning lineup.
The Oilers should definitely wait to bring Henrique back in until he's fully healthy and use game 2 as an opportunity to see who should come out of the lineup. McLeod looks like the odd man out as of right now, but anything can happen in the NHL playoffs.
