Injuries, suspension leave Jets with holes in heart of lineup

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This article was published 03/06/2021 (1338 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After finishing the first series against the Edmonton Oilers mostly unscathed, save for a few bumps and bruises, the Winnipeg Jets find themselves in a much different position heading into Game 2 of their second-round battle against the Montreal Canadiens Friday night.

No. 1 centre Mark Scheifele will miss the next four games while serving his suspension for a hit on Jake Evans in Game 1, while forward Paul Stastny and defenceman Dylan DeMelo are questionable to return owing to injury. That leaves at least one and potentially three key contributors out of the lineup, giving the Jets a level of adversity unlike they’ve seen this post-season.

The Jets faced a similar situation in last year’s playoffs, with the loss of Scheifele, Patrik Laine and Mason Appleton, all of whom were injured in Game 1 during their preliminary round against the Calgary Flames. Winnipeg ended up losing the best-of-five series in four games.

“It’s just a completely different situation,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said when asked if he felt his team was better equipped this season to wade through troubled waters.

“We’ve got a season that we’re real attached to. We’ve lost our first playoff game. We didn’t lose three guys in one game. I think we won our second one in the bubble, too, so we’ll be alright.”

Injury information, especially come playoffs, is hard to come by, as teams have no interest in tipping their hand when it comes to lineup changes. The Jets ran an optional practice Thursday, with a number of players choosing to sit out, making it impossible to guess what the roster might look like for Game 2.

Judging by what Maurice did say, it would appear Stastny is the closest to returning. His absence has raised eyebrows after missing Tuesday’s workout and then Game 1, but only after participating in team practices days before. Maurice said he doesn’t need to be further evaluated.

“He’s not getting looked at. We know what we’re dealing with there,” the coach added. “We’re just hoping that he feels good for the game.”

The same couldn’t be said for DeMelo, who played just 29 seconds before exiting the game and being ruled out a short time later. Maurice said team doctors are still looking him at and that he “didn’t have a definitive answer on him yet.”

The Jets struggled to make up for DeMelo’s departure, creating an issue Maurice admitted was tough to deal with that early in a game. The benefits, he noted, were it allowed some players deeper in the lineup to get extra ice time, so they should be better prepared for Friday.

“We’ve had pretty good chemistry going here (him and I) and it’s tough to lose a guy that early. It changes everything with how you run your back end certainly,” defensive partner Josh Morrissey said. “Now, all of a sudden you’re playing with five D and you’re moving things around a lot more and the contribution he’s been making to our team in the playoffs, to our pairing and my game as well, has been huge. It’s definitely tough to lose him. We’ll see what happens here and we’ll all have to step up if he’s not able to go.”

Maurice said already knew where he would look for a replacement, but wasn’t willing to add any more information. The leading candidates are veteran Jordie Benn or rookie Ville Heinola. Other, more unlikely options include Sami Niku or Dylan Samberg.

NO NEED TV THERAPY: On one of the last questions from reporters, Maurice was asked if he had a chance to speak with Scheifele following the controversial hit. Having already been peppered with a number of questions regarding his star centre, Maurice seemingly took the opportunity to blend his growing frustration with his usual charm, resulting in a shout out to two of TV’s most popular daytime interviewers.

“I’ve talked to everybody this morning. He’s a big strong powerful man that can skate,” Maurice said. “In order to try and cut that play off, he was skating pretty good. He wasn’t striding through the hit by any means. It was a hell of a hit. It was hard. Good on Evans, he took the hit to make the play. I didn’t have to bring in Oprah or Dr. Phil to sit down with Mark to see how he’s feeling this morning.”

WAR OF WORDS: There were some pretty heated words coming out of the Canadiens locker room following the hit on Evans, including defenceman Joel Edmundson claiming if the NHL didn’t take care of the situation by suspending Scheifele, that they would, essentially, handled it themselves.

The Canadiens were predictably still reeling from the hit on Thursday, and when asked about it again, forward Paul Byron added to the collective displeasure with what happened.

“The game isn’t the same as it was in the 1990s. We’re trying to eliminate hits like this that are dangerous,” Byron said, prior to Scheifele’s suspension being announced. “I heard from the players who said he needs to defend himself, but on a play like that — making a wraparound — there’s no chance to protect yourself. It’s a one-goal game with a minute left to play and it’s a big goal for our team. We didn’t like the hit. It was dirty. And the Department of Player Safety will review it and rule on it.”

Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said Evans has been diagnosed with a concussion and while he didn’t have an exact timeline for his return he expected to miss “a lot of time.”

As far as vengeance goes, Ducharme knows the best revenge is to defeat the Jets and move onto the final four teams, one series away from competing for the Stanley Cup. He also wanted to clarify a few things, including Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers acting as a human shield to protect Evans from further harm, as a scrum immediately broke out around the injured player.

“The day (Scheifele) steps back on the ice, what Joel (Edmundson) meant to say is we’ll be in his face and we’ll be hard on him, but within the rules. We’re here to win. We’re here to win a series,” Ducharme said.

“And just to finish up on that, I couldn’t see it from the bench yesterday, but I’d like to underline what Nik Ehlers did. During the scrum, he did everything he could to protect Jake. I know him well, I coached him for two years, and I appreciate what he did.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.catwitter: @jeffkhamilton