EDMONTON - Ryan Jones still isn’t sure yet whether he’s cursed or blessed.

Just days before an agreement is finally reached to end the NHL’s four-month lockout, he takes a puck in the eye at a conditioning camp in Minnesota and is sidelined till early February. At least.

That’s incredibly bad luck — and incredibly bad timing.

But he won’t lose the eye, nor any vision, and when somebody dodges a career-ending, life-altering tragedy by millimetres, they can’t help but feel very, very fortunate.

“It all depends on the day,” said the Oilers winger, who’s still on the mend back at his off-season home in Minnesota. “Obviously I’m thankful I still have my eye, that I can see. I flinched when the puck was coming, I like to think that saved me.

“The extent of the injury could have been a lot worse, so I’m choosing to stay positive. I’ll be back playing, that’s for sure, it’s just a matter of what the timeline is.

“Right now I’m feeling pretty good. I don’t have any p