Myers won’t give odds on playing against Vegas

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This article was published 14/01/2019 (2428 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Monday morning, Jets defenceman Tyler Myers was non-committal on a potential return Tuesday night against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Myers suffered a lower-body injury in Minnesota last Thursday in a defeat to the Wild and was sidelined for a pair of home-ice victories over the Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks over the weekend. The towering blue-liner had played in all 43 games before that, supplying four goals and nine assists.

“We’ll see. I’m going to make the call (Tuesday) morning with the staff, and give it one more skate before we give a definitive answer but feeling pretty good right now,” he said, following practice.

Winnipeg is still without defenceman Dustin Byfuglien, who will miss his eighth straight game after being shelved Dec. 29 with a lower-body injury. In his absence, Joe Morrow has played on the third pairing, while young Finnish blue-liner Sami Niku was inserted into the lineup when Myers went down.

While begrudgedly a spectator, Myers said he’s been impressed with the club’s tidiness against the Red Wings and its resolve against Anaheim in a comeback, overtime win.

“Good battles. I thought our forward positioning — we went over it in the video — I thought was really good. It allowed our team to not give up too much,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting back and helping.”

Forward Nikolaj Ehlers (upper body) remains on the injured-reserve list.

 

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Patrik Laine tied the game 2-2 early in the middle period Sunday against Anaheim when he pulled the trigger on a two-on-one with Bryan Little.

Little admitted post-game that the bouncing pass wasn’t exactly his best work, and the affable Finn didn’t let his veteran centre off the hook.

“It could have been a little bit better pass, like he said before,” said Laine, who leads the squad with 25 goals. The goal snapped a six-game scoring drought. “It felt good to get the tying goal. It was huge for the team and it felt pretty good.”

Did lighting the lamp relieve some frustration?

“It felt good to get it but who knows when I’m gonna score my next goal. You just never know. I’m gonna try to do the same things, the small things that the team appreciates and work hard and you’ll get the goals at some point,” he said.

 

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Feisty Jets winger Brendan Lemieux engaged in a heated war of words with veteran Ducks forward Ryan Kesler in the third period. The two were handed roughing minors but the jawing continued as they sat in the penalty box.

Winnipeg centre Andrew Copp was asked Monday if he was tuned in enough to catch the topic of their conversation.

“I don’t think that’s fit to print,” he said. “If a guy’s starting to grab Lemieux, he’s not going to shy away one bit. He enjoys that part of the game.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell