Rookie leaves good impression early in the season

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This article was published 15/10/2017 (2893 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TUCKER Poolman stepped into the Jets lineup this week and didn’t look out of place, earning plenty of praise for his work on the blue line in both Edmonton and Vancouver.

It was an impressive pro debut for the former University of North Dakota star — but not one that surprised the injured player he was replacing in the lineup.

“The game is a lot easier than the college game, I’ll tell you that. Boys aren’t running as hard,” Dustin Byfuglien said Saturday with a faint hint of a smirk.

He was kidding, of course. And he followed up the friendly shot at his teammate with some legitimate praise.

“You know, he’s done well. He has good gaps and always right there on the guy. That’s something that’s not easy to do sometimes,” Byfuglien said.

Poolman was an observer for Saturday’s game as Byfuglien made his return. When he gets his next chance to impress remains to be seen.

Injury update

 

Adam Lowry was held out of Saturday night’s game with an upper-body injury that isn’t expected to be serious.

“We’re quite hopeful that this will be enough to get him back in,” head coach Paul Maurice said of the one-game hiatus. “He had it going into the (Vancouver) game. It didn’t improve and started to deteriorate toward the end of the game so we’ve just got to jump on this early. It shouldn’t be anything long term,” he said.

Lowry has gone pointless in his first four games centering the Jets third line.

Matt Hendricks is also nearing a return from a lower-body injury that has sidelined him for the first five games of the year. When he returns, the Jets would have to make a roster move to remain at the 23-man maximum.

Ironing out errors

Steve Mason was awarded the No. 1 job out of camp but hit a few early bumps — getting pulled in the home opener against Toronto and then following that up with a tough game in Calgary. And while he’s now watched from the bench for the past three contests, Maurice doesn’t expect that to last much longer.

Connor Hellebuyck was given a third straight start Saturday both because of his impressive performance in a pair of road wins in Edmonton and Vancouver — and to give Mason some extra time to work out the kinks, Maurice said.

“We haven’t practised very much. So we’ll get Steve some practice time and look at him for Columbus,” he said.

The Jets host the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.

Getting a second chance

 

Joel Armia has already taken a quick trip to the dog house early in the season, putting up an ugly minus-four rating in the first two games before being parked in the press box.

He returned to action on Saturday with the injury to Lowry. Maurice said he knows what he needs to work on.

“Just a little bit quicker. He had a lower-body injury in training camp and we really felt that set him back. And he had a tough night there before he came out. Some turnovers that were pretty expensive for us,” Maurice said. “Get back, find your game, keep it simple so that you can start building some confidence.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg