Oilers' Ference suffers head injury

Edmonton Oilers' captain Andrew Ference left Friday night's match with the Phoenix Coyotes with an apparent head injury and did not return. There has been no word on how or when the injury occured to the diminutive defenseman, only that he should be considered day-to-day.

Ference has been embroiled in a heated exchange recently, not on the ice, but with Oilers' beat writer Robert Tychkowsi, who wrote recently:

"It doesn’t matter how good the forwards are, and the Oilers can rotate all the goalies they want; without an NHL caliber defense, none of it matters, the Edmonton blueline is a disjointed mix of skinny, inexperienced newcomers and veterans who are not quite capable of picking up the slack."

Frustration has obviously set in with the Oilers' faithful, as being the doormat of the Western Conference would dictate.  For his part, Ference sports a minus-six in the plus/minus standings and is the only Oiler to play in every game this season. 

His average ice time and penalty minutes are second most on the team - and at 34 years old, he is the elder statesman on a blue line that has surrendered a league worst 187 goals against in 53 games, their goaltending so beset with injury that the team is working on their 4th and 5th depth options.

"No team plays perfect." Ference responded,  "Even when you watch games with the top teams in the league, they still turn over the puck. Everybody makes mistakes, it’s a matter of what kind of layers you have and what kind of awareness you have on the ice, so that when you do make mistakes there’s back-up plans and there’s people there to cover up. The teams that are consistently playing well, they have that"

Ference is an unrestricted free agent after this season.

http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2014/01/oilers-ference-suffers-head-injury.html