Hyman’s season likely over, now what?

No, it wasn’t a dream.

Zach Hyman was hit by Mason Marchment in the shoulder, having only played three minutes in game four before heading down the tunnel just 10 minutes into the first period.

Then on Wednesday morning, Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch announced that Hyman is unlikely to return for the rest of the postseason.

“Zach’s season is most likely done. He’s getting surgery today, and, yeah, it’ll be a while, so we’re not expecting him back for the playoffs,” confirmed Knoblauch.

When asked if it was Hyman’s wrist or shoulder, Knoblauch simply left it up to “upper body.”

Que the ensuing panic — it’s well deserved.

Cry, scream, let it all out. You only have about 24 hours to do so before the puck drops in a new city and the Oilers continue what they did for the remaining 50 minutes of game four.

Manage, adapt, and use multiple players to fill the hole that one left.

In terms of goal scoring, Evander Kane will have a good opportunity to elevate his minutes and opportunities in the top six, if Knoblauch were to go that route.

Adam Henrique and Connor Brown, likely an option for game six, have proven to man a strong third line with Trent Frederic throughout the playoffs.

And of course, depth scoring continues to come through for the Oilers.

“(In) playoffs, there’s going to be times when guys are banged up, and that’s part of the game, and right now we’re missing some guys that are unavailable to play, explained Knoblauch between games four and five. “Obviously, Zach’s gonna be a huge hole, but we’re fortunate to have a lot of depth that guys can come in and step up and give us quality minutes.

“(Hyman’s) put everything out there. He scored 70 goals and numerous big, important goals in the playoffs. And this year, (it’s) the physical department; how many hits he had, his two-way play was tremendous. And now that we’re going to be missing him, we’re going to need other guys to step up.”

You think?

Hyman did have 111 hits after all, including two hits in the three minutes that he did play in game four.

After he left, Vasily Podkolzin had eight, Kasperi Kapanen had seven, Frederic had six, Kane and Darnell Nurse each had five, and the Oilers totalled 50 hits to Dallas’ 24.

Even Connor McDavid was hitting.

For reference, in game three, Hyman led both teams with 10 hits, and the next guy up only had five.

Ok, that was a lot of numbers.

To zero in on the important ones, the Oilers had 48 hits without Hyman in game four and the Florida Panthers average 48.8 hits per playoff game according to StatMuse.

That’s a pretty healthy comparison considering the league leader in hits wasn’t on the ice, and the Oilers were playing a man down.

Not to mention, Mattias Ekholm is ready to return when the Oilers need him.

Perhaps game five?

Too early to say, but one thing isn’t:

The Oilers will be ok. (Hopefully).

They’ll manage. (Fingers crossed).

It won’t be pretty, but it will be playoff hockey.

“When our backs are against a wall, we saw it several times last year, and it brought out the best of our team, playing with a lot of desperation and focus and just laying on the line every single shift. It’s important for us,” explained Knoblauch when asked how his team could handle Hyman’s loss. “We can’t control what the other team’s going to do. What we can control is how we play and how we handle those circumstances, and we know Dallas will come out with a lot of urgency, playing at home.

“Just look at last night’s roster; Brown was hurt, we’ve got Jeff Skinner that’s available, (he) hasn’t played very much, he’s a really good hockey player. Derek Ryan’s not playing. Last year, he was in almost all the playoff games. So I thought we were very fortunate to have the depth we had last year, and this year, we’re probably a little step above that.”

Potential line combinations without Hyman

Game five:

Game six-finals