At Friday’s Edmonton Oilers practice, Kris Knoblauch had an on-ice chat with David Tomasek, the 29-year-old Czech forward who won the Swedish League scoring race last season but currently is painfully learning what it’s like to be an NHL rookie.

While the player politely declined to offer up the gist of the conversation, the player’s body language suggested he was fine with the message from the coach. It didn’t look like he was being told, say, that a trip to the farm in Bakersfield was on the horizon (very unlikely) or he was getting scratched, again (might happen when Mattias Janmark and Zach Hyman return).

It didn’t look like he was being told he would be getting more than his 8:52 even-strength minutes a night, either, the fewest of any of the healthy forwards a month into his North

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