Trouba could be cleared to play tonight

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This article was published 21/01/2015 (3889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AHEAD of schedule, Jacob Trouba could be a player for the Winnipeg Jets tonight at the MTS Centre when the Columbus Blue Jackets visit

The 20-year-old defenceman was part of the crisis of injuries suffered by the Jets from late November and into early December, when five regular blue-liners were out.

Something happened to Trouba in the Dec. 13 game against Anaheim. An upper-body issue that had been bothering him for some time then caused him to miss the next 16 games.

His return had been slated for sometime in February, coach Paul Maurice said.

“I’m ready to go so it’s out of my hands,” Trouba said Tuesday after taking a regular turn at the MTS Iceplex with Jay Harrison. “When I’m called upon, I’ll be ready to play.

“It’s up to the doctors and the coaches, so it’s their decision.”

Maurice said if Trouba is cleared by the medical staff, he’s likely to be in against the Blue Jackets.

The Jets are closer to health than they’ve been in eight weeks. Grant Clitsome may well be out for the season because of back surgery, and now Mark Stuart, who missed nine games in December and early January because of a lower-body issue, is bothered by the same ailment and missed practice Tuesday. The coach called that a maintenance day.

“If (Trouba) gets cleared, then he’s ready to go,” Maurice said. “He’s had enough good, quality practices and practise time that if they’re comfortable where he’s at, I have no concern about his ability to play.”

Trouba said it was no one thing that happened to him when he last played.

“It was kind of building up all year,” he said. “We just thought it was best to stop playing for a bit and shut it down. They have my best interest in mind.”

He did indicate there was some frustration with the decision.

“You always, as a competitive person, well, every athlete always wants to play no matter what,” he said. The second-year defenceman has four goals and 12 points in 31 games. “But you’ve got to look at the big picture and when you’re young hopefully you’ve got a lot of hockey ahead of you. They’ve got your best interest in mind so you’ve got to respect them and listen to what they say because that’s their job. You’ve got to go with it, listen to the doctors. They know what they’re talking about.”

Trouba’s return puts into focus the next issue on the blue-line for the Jets — a crowd.

If and when both he and Stuart are healthy, the team may then have nine healthy defencemen.

“There’s a lot of good players back there and maybe not enough minutes for everyone,” Trouba said. “So I think everyone’s going to have to sacrifice a little bit but I think that’s something that makes us strong as a team, that we have that capability to have that many defencemen. It’s a pretty good luxury to have.”

That debate

MAURICE said the team’s brass is closely tuned to the increasing population on the blue-line.

“We’ve also talked about what are the right pairings with everybody coming back,” the coach said. “(Byfuglien) is playing pretty well defensively but do you want to make changes in the pairings? Again, there’s going to be a big minutes crunch which happens on every team that finds an area of depth. That should be a really good thing for the Winnipeg Jets.”

Perreault remains out

MAURICE said Tuesday forward Mathieu Perreault, cross-checked in the left arm by Chicago’s Daniel Carcillo Friday, will miss a second straight game tonight.

“We hope that there’s enough healing that when he gets off this break that we can get him back in the lineup but we won’t know until that happens,” Maurice said.

The six-game suspension to Carcillo, issued Monday, made no difference to the Jets, the coach said.

“Nothing on the suspension other than it doesn’t help us,” he said. “Whether it was 1,000 games or no games, it doesn’t impact us one bit. We don’t get the player that we needed back in our lineup. And I’m not looking for the league to make us whole on that.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca