Jets won’t rush Laine back into lineup

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This article was published 09/01/2017 (3183 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They desperately need him back doing his thing but the Winnipeg Jets won’t hasten the return of Patrik Laine.

Laine, the team’s superstar right-winger, is sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with a concussion — the result of a heavy, open-ice hit from Buffalo Sabres defenceman Jake McCabe Saturday afternoon.

Laine led all NHL rookies with 37 points and was tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews for the rookie goal-scoring lead with 21 before he was hurt.

Speaking after Monday’s morning skate, Jets head coach Paul Maurice was asked for a progress report on the franchise’s prized 18-year-old forward.

“So, I won’t be giving you a daily temperature reading. The first time you’ll see him would be (when he’s) back on the ice,” said Maurice. “He has to go through the normal stretch. He becomes symptom-free. He starts very light off-ice workouts that get augmented until he can get on the ice, and light skates until he can get to contact.

“He’s going to have to be symptom-free and we’re going to have to be real sure that there’s enough time on that.”

Maurice said there’s no minimum time a player with a concussion has to be sidelined.

“There’s a daily routine of what we’re going to put a guy through, but — and this is where this is difficult for everyone — because a guy passes one test doesn’t mean he’s gonna pass it three days later. So, you’re always checking back and maybe having to go back a day or two,” said Maurice.

Laine was looking down at the puck — for a pass from centre Mark Scheifele — when McCabe hit him with his left shoulder. No penalty was assessed on the play. Laine looked like he hit the back of his head on the ice after he fell.

Maurice repeated what he said Sunday when Laine’s diagnosis was first made public — the hit was within the rules of the game.

He said a body check delivered in the neutral zone with that much force doesn’t happen often. McCabe stepped up to make contact just as the Jets trio of Laine, Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers were starting to wheel out of the Jet’s zone.

“It’s very, very difficult to time that, the way it was timed. Normally, when you have forward motion by your players, the (defence) are pulling back and taking ice because the cost of missing that hit is an odd-man break. You just don’t see it very often,” he said.

“The hits where sticks or elbows or shoulders hit the head, those are the ones they’re really worried about. (In this case) that’s head-to-head contact, both men were potentially in jeopardy of suffering the same injury. It was a full-on, face-first collision. It rarely happens and I don’t think it’s anything that can be mandated out.”

Forty-eight hours after watching their marquee winger crash to the ice and lay motionless until he was helped by team trainers, several Jets noted while it was torturous few moments, the hit was a hockey play, pure and simple.

And it’s not a check that needs to be outlawed.

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“It’s a hit that’s been part of hockey forever and it always will be,” said veteran centre Mathieu Perreault. “(The league) is taking away hits to the head, the principle point of contact and all that stuff to protect players, but open-ice hits when it’s clean and it’s in the chest and it’s just kind of Patty not being aware of what was coming at him, I don’t think you can get rid of that, no I don’t think so.”

Perreault, a 5-10, 188-pound centre, joked he’s never delivered a crushing check like that in his pro career, nor does he expect to. But he’s been on the receiving end of some big hits, so his thoughts immediately turn to the well-being of the player.

He said while the hit likely energized the Sabres bench initially, at least one Buffalo player showed immediate concern for the Finnish sniper.

“You do feel bad when someone goes down. After Patty’s hit, I was sitting right next to the Buffalo bench and (Ryan) O’Reilly was there and we looked at each other and he gave me a face like, ‘Wow, that was bad.’ You know he didn’t like to see that, either,” Perreault said. “It’s never fun to see a guy go down like that.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @WFPJasonBell