The Oilers got some bad news for Round 2 of the playoffs, as Mattias Ekholm is expected to miss the entire round against Vegas due to an undisclosed injury. The Edmonton Oilers are moving on in the playoffs <a href='https://www.hockeylatest.com/nhl-team/edmonton-oilers/crucial-update-on-mattias-ekholm-playoff-status-has-been-revealed' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>without one of their leading defensemen</a>. After defeating the Los Angeles Kings in six games, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch declared that Mattias Ekholm is uncertain about playing in their next series against the Vegas Golden Knights. <div align='center' class='pl20 pr20'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/dnbsports/status/1918179886302376405'><div style='border:1px solid #CCCCCC;border-radius:10px;padding:20px;width:300px;'>Loading from Twitter ...</div></a></blockquote></div> <img src='https://i.marqueur.com/habsetlnh/i/photo/555909.webp' width='100%' border='0' alt='image' loading='lazy' defer /> <h3>Ekholm hasn't played a game in roughly three weeks</h3> <a href='https://www.nhl.com/oilers/player/mattias-ekholm-8475218' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Ekholm</a> has been unavailable since he was injured in a game against the San Jose Sharks on April 11 and didn't play in the entire first round. He was already troubled by injuries prior to this and missed seven games earlier in the season. The 34-year-old has been a stalwart along Edmonton's blue line with over 22 minutes of ice time per game. He recorded a total of nine goals and 24 assists for 33 points in 65 games in the regular season and a plus-11 rating. Knoblauch identified that the Golden Knights presented a unique challenge to what the Kings provided in closing out the regular season. For the series against Vegas, obviously, they play quite a bit different style than LA with their systems and the type of personnel they have. It's going to give us a whole new challenge, and I don't want to undersell LA, Knoblauch said. He said the Oilers will have to readjust in response and will not be bringing a similar game plan they used in Round 1. The Golden Knights progressed to the second round with a six-game win against the Minnesota Wild. They're a good team, and they had the best record in the second half of the season. It wasn't easy by any means, but the way we approach the two systems, it's going to give us a different challenge. We're going to have to change some things up. Things that were successful against LA might not be successful against Vegas, Knoblauch added. The last time Vegas and Edmonton played in a playoff series was in 2023 when the Knights beat the Oilers in six games on their path to their Stanley Cup title. The Oilers have the task of playing against a recent champion and will be without Ekholm in particular on their blue line.