The injury to Jason Dickinson may be more serious than the Oilers hoped

Dickinson left the 5-2 win over San Jose on April 9 after blocking a shot and needed help off the ice. Kris Knoblauch had no update that night.

By April 10, there was still no return timeline, and by April 11 he was ruled out against Los Angeles. That is why this feels bigger than day to day spin.

Edmonton is 40-30-10 with 90 points entering April 13, second in the Pacific. This is not the point in the season where you shrug off center depth.

Dickinson has 7-10-17 in 64 games this season and joined Edmonton in the March 5 deal with Chicago. Since then, he has filled hard minutes more than flashy ones.

You can see why the chatter got loud, because the post frames this like a team hiding pain right before the playoffs.

Fans can live with cold finishing. They get nervous when the middle of the ice starts disappearing.

Leon Draisaitl is already on injured reserve, Mattias Janmark is out, and Zach Hyman is also sidelined. Remove Dickinson too, and Edmonton starts patching roles instead of rolling lines.

That is the real threat here. Dickinson is the kind of center who lets Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid start in better spots and spend less time covering leaks.

The Oilers still have elite scoring, with Connor McDavid at 47-86-133, and the man advantage is running at 30.6 percent. Their penalty kill sits at 77.3, which makes Dickinson's defensive detail matter even more.

If the injury lingers, this stops being one player missing. It becomes a matchup problem every playoff opponent will try to drag into the open.