Jets facing life without Lowry

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This article was published 22/01/2025 (257 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DENVER — The Winnipeg Jets aren’t going to be able to follow their leader for the foreseeable future.

Captain Adam Lowry is out “week-to-week” after suffering an upper-body injury Monday night in Salt Lake City. The 31-year-old crashed heavily into the boards early in the first period after appearing to get tangled with Utah forward Lawson Crouse. After playing a few more shifts he did not come out for the middle frame.

“It really affected him in terms of what he was able to do,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said Wednesday after his team’s morning skate in Denver. “Obviously a big blow. Just like we’ve done with other injuries, other guys have to step up.”

Lowry, 31, was on pace to have a career offensive year in addition to being an elite shutdown centre on one of the league’s top teams. He has 26 points (11G, 15A) in 48 games while also being a significant presence on the penalty kill.

“A huge loss,” said forward Mason Appleton.

“He’s our captain, our backbone in a sense. He does a lot of things all over the ice. He’s been scoring too and defending really hard. It’s a huge loss for us and as soon as we can get him back, that would be great.”

Arniel didn’t specify exactly what the injury is but clarified it’s not a concussion.

“It’s going to be tough without him. He’s a hell of a captain and does everything out there,” said forward Alex Iafallo.

“However long he’s out, it’s going to be tough without him. But he’s always around the room, today just talking with guys and stuff. He’s awesome off the ice, too. He’s still here and we’ll just have to play hard for him and play hard for each other.”

After facing Colorado on Wednesday, the Jets have seven games remaining over the next two weeks before the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. Whether Lowry can return prior to that pause remains to be seen.

In addition to being valuable, Lowry has also proven to be extremely durable despite his rugged playing style. He played 81 games last year, 82 the year prior and 79 the season before that.

“It’s going to be tough without him. He’s a hell of a captain and does everything out there.”–Alex Iafallo

Lowry has excelled this year on a line with Appleton and Nino Niederreiter, typically tilting the ice when out against the other’s team’s best offensive weapons. Appleton suffered an injury on Dec. 28 and Arniel was forced to juggle some things and appeared to find gold by playing Lowry with Nikolaj Ehlers and Alex Iafallo.

That trio had several excellent games together, but changes are once again necessary.

“It’s by committee now,” said Arniel.

As the Jets faced the Avalanche Wednesday, Arniel moved Iafallo to the top line with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor and had Ehlers on the second line with Gabe Vilardi and Vlad Namestnikov. Niederreiter remained on the third line, now with Cole Perfetti and Rasmus Kupari, while Appleton was on the fourth line with Morgan Barron and David Gustafsson.

“There’s a little bit of everything kind of happening here. I had lots of time (Tuesday) to kind of think it over,” said Arniel.” I wanted to put a net-front guy with each of the lines as well, but there’s some faceoff things as well.”

Lowry’s injury comes just as the Jets were on the cusp of being fully healthy, with defenceman Haydn Fleury also returning to the lineup on Wednesday night for the first time since Dec. 23 and joining Appleton in making his return.

“I’ve been in this situation before and just try to build my game and get going. Excited to be back for sure.”–Mason Appleton

“It always feels kind of long. A month away is a decent amount of time where you’ve kind of got to ease back into it a little bit,” Appleton said of missing the last 11 games (Fleury missed 12).

“You’re not going to feel great right away. But I’ve been in this situation before and just try to build my game and get going. Excited to be back for sure.”

Fleury’s return gives the Jets eight healthy defencemen for the first time all season. On Wednesday, it was Ville Heinola and Colin Miller as the two healthy scratches.’

“We’re going to need them, we’re going to use them. I’ve talked to them all. I don’t know what the batting order is going to be, but they’re not going to sit for long periods of time,” said Arniel.

“I’m going to try to get everybody going, because you never know what happens coming up to the 4 Nations. These injuries, we’ve seen too many of them already on our back-end. I just want to make sure everybody is up and running.”

One curious development was Logan Stanley moving over to his off-side on Wednesday to skate beside Fleury, who is also a left-shot, on the third defence pairing.

“This has a lot to do with (Fleury). If I threw him in and he’s never played the right side, he would be at a disadvantage,” said Arniel.

“We need his skating ability, especially (Wednesday night). Some fresh legs, he’s coming off an injury and he played real well for us, he was in our top-four for a long stretch (when Dylan Samberg was injured earlier this year).”

Miller is a right-shot, while Heinola is a left-shot who has spent plenty of time on the right side. Arniel said he elected to keep Stanley in the lineup and move him to the right side because he did so last year at times with Samberg and Nate Schmidt.

“Stan does feel comfortable over there, and I hope to see that one-timer that came a few times last year, where Sammy fed him and he got that shot off. We’ll see. Hopefully that can be a smooth transition,” said Arniel.

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg