Little takes some contact at Jets practice, talks of possible return

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This article was published 30/03/2016 (3530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Of all the minor Winnipeg Jets developments at the MTS Centre this morning — including the emergency recall of forward Chase De Leo from the AHL and the signing of Providence College forward Brandon Tanev — it was Bryan Little’s sweater colour that was most surprising.

Little had recently skated with his teammates but only in a non-contact, orange shirt — heartening news, at least, that the compression fracture he suffered in a game Feb. 18 in Tampa, while deemed season-ending, may not have been catastrophic.

The team’s No. 1 centre will miss his 20th consecutive game tonight — the Jets meet the Ottawa Senators at 6:30 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN1290) — but he was wearing a regular-coloured, white jersey for the game-day skate.

“It just means I’ve been cleared for some contact,” a winded Little said after his own post-practice conditioning skate. “It’s pretty exciting. It’s at a point now where everyone’s pretty safe and I feel pretty comfortable that we can do that.

“We’re not going to take any chances at this point of the year, so that gives you an indication how good it’s feeling.”

If you ask Little, playing in one of the team’s final five games of the season isn’t out of the question. It’s a surprising development — not that it’s going to help the Jets much now that they’ve been eliminated from the playoff race.

“It’s going to be the doctor’s call,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said of Little. “The line on that one is at 100 per cent and not short (of that). We want him to build the strength in a hockey environment to help the healing process and a reconditioning process.”

Talking to Little, you get the sense he thinks it might actually happen.

“Today… I take more contact when I’m skating by myself,” he said with a laugh.

“It’s tough to say,” Little said of a possible return before the end of the season. “They’re not going to put me in unless I’m absolutely 100 per cent and I don’t want to play unless I’m absolutely 100 per cent. Everything feels really good right now… It’s just a matter of everything being strong enough to take a hit.

“I haven’t really talked to the coaches or doctors about what their plan is yet but… a couple of weeks ago, they said they’re not going to let me play unless they’re 100 per cent comfortable with it. And I understand that.”

Little said he’s not pushing the envelope, getting in for some contact when he could just as easily be taking all the time the summer affords to heal.

“It’s felt almost fine for the last two or three weeks… I’ve been pushing it for the last couple of weeks pretty good, working out and skating by myself. So the only thing I haven’t done lately is get bumped.”

Since injured players who don’t practice are generally off limits to reporters, today was a chance to catch up with Little on what happened last month in Tampa prior to and after a collision with Lightning defenceman Anton Stralman.

“It felt really bad,” he said. “Honestly, from that night to two days (later) it got better but I had trouble walking to get X-rays that night after the game. I knew something was definitely wrong. And then it started to feel better right away and you start to think it’s not too bad and then I got tested in Florida and they’re telling me it’s all good, it’s all clear and then I thought I might be back in a week or two weeks.

“Then we got here and it’s a good thing we double- and triple-checked it. Because they ended up finding something.”

Little also waved off any suggestion that Stralman’s hit was a dirty play.

“It’s tough,” Little said. “Let’s just say I put myself in a bad position… I was leaning forward, kind of losing my balance and reaching back. It was the three no-no’s of skating right up the middle of the ice. And I think he was just doing what any defenceman would do. He saw me with my head down and he took advantage of that.

“He didn’t (hit me in the head). I don’t know why the replay shows it but I think my head just missed his side. Everyone kept asking me about my head afterwards, but my head’s fine… It was right here (neck and shoulder) and it compressed my back.

“I don’t think it was a dirty play. I just put myself in a really bad spot,” Little said. “I give (Stralman) credit. He messaged me a few days after… to ask me how I was doing and say sorry about everything. He seemed like a really good guy.”

The Jets will go with Michael Hutchinson in goal tonight against the Senators, who are not officially eliminated but are 10 points off the Eastern Conference playoff line with six games to play.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca