Injury-plagued Jets in suck-it-up mode once again

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/03/2015 (3846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the playoff line draws nearer, the Winnipeg Jets will require even greater resolve than they’ve shown in past injury crises this season.

Jets fans got additional bad news on Friday when head coach Paul Maurice announced anchor defenceman Dustin Byfuglien will be lost to the lineup for two to four weeks because of an upper-body injury that caused him to leave Wednesday’s home game against Ottawa during the second period.

That blow hurt even more when Maurice added some piling on — top centre Bryan Little will miss the next two games and maybe more due to an injury sustained Wednesday.

The Jets start a four-game road trip tonight in Nashville.

The team had been no worse than the Western Conference’s first wild-card team each day since Nov. 4 but at 76 points, fell to the No. 2 wild-card slot, only two points above the playoff line, on Thursday night.

When the bad news came Friday, a couple of key players were already missing.

Productive left-winger Mathieu Perreault is out until early April and defenceman Ben Chiarot has a broken hand that will sideline him until about the same time.

Left-winger Matt Halischuk also remains out another week or two, though he did practise again Friday.

Previously, the worst of the injury spells began in late November and continued well into January, when progressively, Zach Bogosian, Toby Enstrom, Jacob Trouba, Mark Stuart and Grant Clitsome went out for long periods. Clitsome’s season eventually ended with back surgery.

During that time, however, the Jets managed to advance from a team one game over. 500 to 10 and more over that mark.

Maurice said Little’s current situation is kind of murky, but more will be known by the middle to late next week.

“Bryan Little’s going to make the trip but I don’t expect him for the front end of that,” Maurice said, indicating Tuesday’s game in St. Louis is out. “It may be longer than this trip, but there’s a chance he plays towards the end of it.

“And there’s a chance he doesn’t. We’ll know probably more in five to seven days on that.”

And there was also a lack of certainty on how long Byfuglien will be sidelined.

“Dustin Byfuglien is going to be out two to four weeks,” the coach said. “There’s always that grey area of how injuries heal, but that’s typical.”

The impact of Byfuglien’s loss is significant, and beyond the 15 goals and 42 points he’s brought so far this season.

“I won’t give you the exact poundage, but we’re going to miss him,” the coach said. “He’s a force back there for sure. We’ve dealt with a number of these injuries on our back end. We have good people to put in the lineup and they’ve played well and won games.”

Jets right-winger Blake Wheeler sees a hole where Byfuglien is concerned.

“You miss him everywhere,” Wheeler said. “He’s such a physical presence. He’s tough to play against for the other team’s forwards. Nobody wants to go into the corners with him.

“He gives our team momentum with his big hits and his ability to create turnovers with his instincts. He’s a big hole to fill, literally and figuratively. We’re going to miss him and hopefully he can heal up quick and get back.”

Little’s absence has prompted the team to recall centre Eric O’Dell from the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps.

Byfuglien’s absence means Adam Pardy will return to the lineup as a full-time defenceman.

Maurice said increased minutes for others will not be a problem.

“You have to make sure everybody has the no-passenger concept,” the coach said. “Everybody’s got to add something to it.

“If we’re going to suffer an injury to our group, having someone go down on the right D, means we’ve still got enough minutes. Jacob Trouba wants to play more minutes and Tyler (Myers) clearly can. So we have some depth at that position.

“Jake plays better the more he plays.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca