Postma battling odds, injury

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This article was published 02/10/2014 (4348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HE’S just about there.

The worry is, it might be too late.

Defenceman Paul Postma was in practice for the second straight day on Wednesday after missing about a week with an unspecified lower-body ailment that flared up after the second day of Winnipeg Jets training camp.

Postma said he hopes to get into one or maybe even both of the Jets’ final two exhibition games as the battle rages on between 10 defencemen for likely seven roster spots.

Top four

The team’s top four seems set — Zach Bogosian with Toby Enstrom and Mark Stuart with Jacob Trouba but after that, nothing yet seems sure between Grant Clitsome, Adam Pardy, Keaton Ellerby, Postma, Ben Chiarot and 2013 first-rounder Josh Morrissey.

“It always is (a challenge),” Postma said. “Camp is always a pretty good competition and there’s never enough spots for the players there. It’s going to be good no matter what kind of lineup we come out with, it’s going to be a solid defence corps. I’m just going to play my game and hopefully I’ll be there (opening) night.”

He said he was 90 per cent Wednesday.

“Just a frustrating injury, lower-body stuff, stuff that happened in camp and took a couple more days off the ice and I’m feeling pretty good right now,” he said. “I’m really close. Another day of practice and we’ll see how it goes but I’d like to get in a game as soon as possible.”

The 25-year-old product of Red Deer, Alta., seems to have been battling the odds for some time now. Last season, on the verge of a breakthrough, he missed several months with a blood clot in his leg and didn’t return until very late in the season. His year amounted to just 19 NHL games.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Postma said. “I’m pretty sick of doing the bag skates by myself, stuff like that. A lot of the things I can’t control and that’s just something I’ve had to deal with and it’s more of a mental battle.

“But I think I’m getting better at it and I’m getting better at taking care of my body and that I don’t have to deal with this again.”

One plus might be that Jets coach Paul Maurice did coach Postma when he returned to action late last season.

“That is a challenge for him because what you wanted out of camp from Paul was to see how he finished (last year), to play the same game,” Maurice said.

“We made a decision there that he’s in that mix. And he’s still in the mix.

“But players like Grant Clitsome is a guy who had question marks and I hadn’t seen him play other than on TV so now I think he’s gotten better each game and like what he does.

“So that’s the challenge for those extra guys and that’s disappointing for a player with injury and excitement for a guy who gets to go in and play.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca