Copp to join Perreault in Jets’ sick bay

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/12/2019 (2156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Losing two key forwards wasn’t exactly what the Winnipeg Jets had in mind for this week’s three-game homestand.

One game after losing veteran forward Mathieu Perreault to a high hit in Sunday’s 7-3 win over Philadelphia, the Jets would see another one of their forwards go down. 

In the second period of Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, Andrew Copp attempted to hit Jordan Staal into the boards. But Staal stood tall and it was Copp who would take most of the damage as the Jets forward would fall awkwardly. Copp immediately went to the bench and was favouring his head and neck area before leaving the game for good.

The Jets cancelled Wednesday’s practice at Bell MTS Place at the last minute, but Copp wouldn’t have been out on the ice regardless as head coach Paul Maurice said the fifth-year player is week-to-week with an upper-body injury and will not return before Christmas. Maurice made it clear that Copp does not have a concussion. 

Centre Adam Lowry now finds himself as the last man standing on the Jets’ reliable third line. Perreault, 31, has six goals and six assists in 33 games this season. Copp contributed five goals and nine assists in 34 games while averaging a career-high of 17-minutes of ice time per game.

“They bring something really different than the other two lines and (they’re) in different roles than the other two lines play,” said Maurice during Wednesday’s media availability. “We’re in the process of kind of making an assessment of what we’ll need. We’ll have to bring in at least one player, maybe two, in and we’ll do that today.”

Hours later the team officially put Perreault, who remains in concussion protocol, and Copp on injured reserve and called forwards Jansen Harkins and Mason Appleton up from the Manitoba Moose. It’s a well-deserved promotion for Harkins, who has yet to pull on an NHL sweater in a regular-season game, as the 22-year-old has been a force for the Moose this season. Harkins, a second-round pick by the Jets in 2015, has the third-most points in the AHL as he’s notched seven goals and 24 assists in 31 games. Appleton returns to the Jets after a four-game conditioning stint with the Moose where he picked up one assist. He broke a bone in his foot while throwing the football around with teammates at Mosaic Stadium in Regina prior to the Heritage Classic in October. The 23-year-old Appleton, who was chosen four rounds after Harkins was back in 2015, had two penalty minutes in nine games with the Jets to start the year.

“We’ll always say there is no threshold, next guy up, all that. But you get into (Bryan) Little, Perreault and Copp out of your lineup now, those top nine guys, and you’ve been fairly healthy and structured up front so it’s allowed you to kind of work with a back end,” Maurice added. “Our forwards have had a big impact on our defences ability to survive and play well. But we’ve got NHL players that can fill that role and I’ve run more of a top nine. I’m not gonna have to push a lot of people into bigger minutes than they’ve been already getting.”

Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey was asked what the loss of Perreault and Copp means for the team.

“Obviously, it’s tough to lose guys like that. I thought that both of them have had really strong seasons and I think both of them lately have been playing great hockey for us,” he said. “It’s tough, but, I guess that’s the harsh reality of the NHL. You’re going to have injuries and there’s going to be times where the lineup shifts and guys have to come in and step up in other guys absences. That’s going to be big for us to try to get to Christmas here and have guys step up.”

Even with the injuries piling up, forward Kyle Connor said it shouldn’t change how the top-six play. With Mark Scheifele on a team-leading seven-game point streak, Patrik Laine finding the back of the net in three out of the past four games and Connor having 10 points in the last seven contests, it would be tough to ask the first line to take their game to another level to make up for the holes in the lineup.

“I think it’s just the whole team. We got pretty good depth in the organization,” Connor said. “It’s almost next man up so when they plug them in, they gotta be ready to play. I don’t think there’s any added pressure to anybody.”

With a pair of division matchups up next on the schedule, starting with tonight’s homestand finale against the Chicago Blackhawks and then Saturday’s trip to Minnesota to take on the Wild, it will be important for the Jets to quickly figure out how their new-look third-line can replicate the success of the old one.

“These are a couple big games. The standings are so tight,” Morrissey said. “We need to come out with our best effort in the next few.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31