In the first game back after the Christmas break the Winnipeg Jets played the Edmonton Oilers. While the Jets came away with a 4-3 win it might be a hollow victory as Mark Scheifele was injured in the game and now listed as out 6-8 weeks with an upper body injury.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year all rolled into one.
What happens now is anyone’s guess but the schedule does favour Winnipeg as they have their 6 day break along with a very favourable schedule. Depending on timelines Scheifele could miss 16 games, 22 or more.
This is the test of depth every organization faces at some point and the best weather it but it’s not simply about depth players. The coach, in this case Paul Maurice, has some hard choices to make.
Right now his options are bringing in either one of Marko Dano or Shawn Matthias, the latter of the two Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has been trying to trade for a few weeks now.
While there is not certainty to what will be a short-term or longer fix the Jets have more than one thing they can do to address the loss of a number one centre.
In no order of priority the first move would be to slide everyone up and bring in one of Matthias or Dano for the fourth line.
Little, Copp, Hendricks Dano/Matthias
Probably not the move anyone wants and likely not what Maurice chooses.
Now the other option is sliding players around and making something like this as was presented to me on Twitter.
Connor Wheeler Laine Perrault Little Ehlers Lowry Copp Tanev Dano/Matthias Hendricks Armia
This is in Maurice’s wheelhouse and keeps his trio of TLC together that he has come to rely upon much this season.
As for the other option- call up Jack Roslovic and let him bring his dominant game at the AHL level up to the NHL. By doing so he could simply swap out Little for Roslovic and not adjust anything else, Little would then be reunited with Wheeler.
It may come to this as Wheeler is going to be asked to carry a lot of weight with Connor and Laine as his wingers on the top line, and as a centre. My gut feeling is that this is a short term experiment and much tinkering happens on this journey and eventually we see a call up.
While it’s hard to argue with the Jets success so far this season having this event also raises questions about getting both of Dano and Matthias into game long ago so they are not forced to come in almost dry-neither of which have seen a game in well over a month. For both payers this is a shot they want but it comes worth a cost that no team mate wishes.
Next game is versus the Islanders who handed the Jets a 5-2 spanking before Christmas. The challenge in this rematch and for the new year only got harder without Scheifele but that’s hockey, that’s sports. Good teams and organizations survive these kinds of injuries and now we will see how good the Winnipeg Jets and Paul Maurice really are.