Jets hope to have Ehlers in lineup despite lingering injury

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This article was published 22/02/2024 (592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Officially, the status of Nikolaj Ehlers lands somewhere between hopeful and questionable.

The Winnipeg Jets winger was held off the ice on Thursday and while head coach Rick Bowness took an optimistic tone when asked about his availability for Friday night’s game at the United Center against the Chicago Blackhawks, his answer came with a clear caveat.

“Yeah, we do expect him to play. But again, with this, you keep him off (the ice) today and yesterday and you hope that he’s feeling better tomorrow,” said Bowness. “If it’s sore, we’re not going to make it any worse. Let’s put it that way.”

The nature of Ehlers’ injury remains undisclosed, though it’s believed to be an upper-body issue.

Is it something recurring or a new ailment?

“He’s been battling something. He’s been battling it for a little bit now” said Bowness. “It’s new, recurring… Yeah. It’s a nagging injury, so yeah to both.”

That Ehlers has been operating at less than full health for some time helps explain his recent dry spell, which includes 10 games without a goal and just one assist during his past nine outings.

Linemate Cole Perfetti has hit a rough patch as well, as he’s up to 14 games without a goal and has only one assist during that span.

If Ehlers, who has 16 goals and 37 points in 54 games this season, is unable to suit up, Alex Iafallo is expected to get bumped up to the second line with Sean Monahan, at least based on how the Jets lined up on Thursday.

Nate Schmidt is expected to draw back into the lineup for Logan Stanley against the Blackhawks, while Morgan Barron should be back on the fourth line with Vladislav Namestnikov after sitting out on Tuesday as a healthy scratch.

“They didn’t come out because of bad play. It’s about the games that are coming up,” said Bowness, pointing to the four remaining games to close out the month and the more taxing schedule of 16 games coming up in March. “We need everyone playing. Now, who hasn’t played in a while? We’ve got to get them in. The schedule that we’re facing right now, we don’t want to throw a guy in in the middle of March who hasn’t played for a while, because the games get more and more important. So it’s important to us.”

With games this weekend against the Blackhawks and Arizona Coyotes (who have lost 11 consecutive games going into Sunday’s meeting), Bowness should have an opportunity to keep rolling four lines with regularity.

That’s something the Jets have done a good job with all season long and should help keep them fresh during the stretch drive.

“We have the luxury of that fourth line giving us quality minutes,” said Bowness. “If we have to shorten the bench, we’ll shorten the bench, but you can’t get burned out early in March by rolling three lines out there with a lot of games coming up and a lot of travel. It’s about monitoring that ice time and making sure that fourth line’s giving us quality minutes to give those other guys a little break.”

Central dominance

Thanks to Tuesday’s victory, the Jets improved to 13-3-1 within the Central Division this season.

That’s one of the big reasons they lead the Central in points percentage as they continue to battle the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche for top spot.

“It’s critical playing well in your division. I know with the added teams now we don’t have as many divisional games as we used to. But you’re still playing most of these teams four times, and those are big swings,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “If you just look at Minnesota, we’ve gone 3-0 against them. If that’s the other way, the gap is a lot tighter. It can come down to being the difference in seeding, it can come down to being the difference in squeaking into the playoffs or not. So every point’s critical within your own division, especially standings-wise. When you’re chasing teams it’s the quickest way to gain ground on them. So we’ve been ready for the most part playing against divisional opponents and we’re really looking forward to the game (on Friday) night.”

Gustafsson return imminent

Centre David Gustafsson is expected to remain on his conditioning stint with the Manitoba Moose through the weekend before rejoining the Jets.

Gustafsson has appeared in four games with the Moose so far, notching one assist.

The Moose are set to host the Calgary Wranglers in a weekend doubleheader that kicks off on Friday night.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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