The Jets are heading out on the road for a pair of Central Division games starting in Nashville in Saturday. The game against the Predators has become a lot more important as they have gone 6-3-1 in their last ten games which has allowed them to climb within four points of Winnipeg for the wild card spot.
While largely healthy the Jets have been without Pierre-Luc Dubois for eight of the last nine games. He’s played just one of the eight games for Winnipeg in March and the team could use a player with his size as well as his 24 goals, 31 assists for 55 points in 61 games.
Today after practice Rick Bowness was asked about whether he was a game-time decision for the matinee in Tennessee to which he indicated “yes”.
He had been asked earlier in the media availability that if this was a playoff game would Dubois be more likely to play to which he responded
“Yes. Again, we’re not going to put him in a position where he’s not 100%. As long as he’s close and feels like he can help the team, then he’ll play. If he decides that he couldn’t get through a game like that. That’s the danger you run of somebody whose playing with a slight injury, that they don’t get through the game. Listen, we’re going to leave it completely up to him. If he feels he’s 100% or close enough that he knows he can not only play the game but finish the game and make a contribution then we’ll certainly let him play, but that call is going to be made by him not us.”
With the game getting underway at 1 PM CDT there won’t be a morning skate so unless the team releases the news it seems likely that we will have to wait for warm-up skate to find out for sure his status.
Remember to join us on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show which gets underway at 9 AM on Saturday.