Scheifele’s run of post-season bad luck continues with latest injury

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This article was published 25/04/2023 (867 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mark Scheifele proved himself to be a prime-time playoff performer during the Winnipeg Jets’ magical run to the Western Conference Final five years ago. Fourteen goals in 17 games spoke volumes.

Since then? Forgettable post-season stints, to say the least, filled with misery and malfeasance. And the Jets forward is only partially to blame.

His 2020 stint ended after just a couple shifts when then Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk caught him with a questionable hit that left him with a series-ending ankle injury. It happened early in Game 1 of the qualifying round.

You’ll recall former Paul Maurice said “it was intentional… it was a filthy, dirty kick to the back of the leg. He could have cut his Achilles. He could have ended the man’s career.”

Funny enough, Maurice now coaches Tkachuk on the Florida Panthers.

Scheifele was back in time for the truncated 2021 season and helped the Jets to a first-round sweep of the Edmonton Oilers. But he lost his cool in the dying seconds of Game 1 against the Montreal Canadiens, obliterating Jake Evans with a hit after he scored an empty-net goal.

Evans was stretchered off the ice, while Scheifele was given a four-game ban which carried into the start of the 2021-22 season after the Habs swept the Jets.

Winnipeg didn’t make the playoffs last year, but this season provided a fresh opportunity to write a happier ending. Now his season could be over, depending on whether he’s available for Thursday’s must-win in Vegas against the Golden Knights and whether the Jets can extend their season.

“It’s unfortunate obviously to lose Mark, a guy we really rely on,” said long-time teammate Blake Wheeler.

Adding insult to injury was the fact Scheifele nearly opened the scoring, only to be thwarted on a breakaway when former teammate Laurent Brossoit made a pad save. Unfortunately, he ended up tripping Scheifele in the process, causing the veteran centre to crash hard into the boards.

“I was on the bench. We were all hoping he was OK. He went pretty hard into the boards,” said Pierre-Luc Dubois. “Yeah, we were hoping it was going to be fine and then he comes back onto the ice, we think he’s OK. Obviously, to lose him is very unfortunate.”

Scheifele tried to play the next shift, but appeared to aggravate things on a shot attempt that ended his night.

“If the player tells you ‘I want to give it a go,’ you have to let him try it,” said Bowness. “He’s the only one that knows. You have to give him that opportunity. If it feels bad, they come off, and take the night off.”

The injury is especially painful considering Scheifele joins Josh Morrissey, Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti on the injured list.

“Bad luck, whatever you want to call it,” said Wheeler.

“It’s not something we can really dwell on. We have to focus on the bodies we have available and certainly we have enough to win on Thursday. We’d really like to have the guys that aren’t good to go but like I said we believe in the group we’ve got and we’ll go out there on Thursday and fight like hell.”

Scheifele led the Jets with a career-high 42 goals along with 26 assists while appearing in 81 regular-season games (the only one he missed was the meaningless season finale against the Colorado Avalanche when Winnipeg had already clinched and several key players sat out).

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Dubois said his team is trying to remain focused despite the infirmary quickly filling up.

“We have two options. We can either feel bad for ourselves, or we can have a positive mindset,” he said.

“We won one in Vegas before. We feel like we have the recipe to do it again. All year we’ve had injuries. When we were first in the West, we had a bunch of guys injured. Anything’s possible. We can’t be thinking about getting two or three more wins here. We’ve got to just think about the next game and how we can get that next win. We have what it takes.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.