Photo Credit: Colby Spence
There was some talk earlier today that Jets centre Mark Scheifele was not at 100% after the Oilers gane but he took the morning skate so it appeared that whatever concern was perhaps overblown. But as we got closer to warm-up skate at the MTS Centre we learned that the Jets top centre wouldn’t be in the lineup for the Jets.
In today’s Saturday Headlines Elliotte Friedman indicated that the Jets feel it is simply “day-to-day” for Scheifele.
Update (December 3rd): Coach Maurice indicated post-game in St. Louis that “He’s still day-to-day. We don’t believe this is a long term or he wouldn’t have taken the morning skate. He wasn’t as mobile as he needs to play” When pressed further if Scheifele could play tomorrow in Chicago, coach Maurice said “Ya. (pause). That would be honest.”
Update II (December 4th): Coach Maurice added some info in advance of the game against Chicago: “We didn’t skate him on the off day cause we wanted to rest him. Tested it yesterday, it was good early in the morning skate then late we weren’t sure. We gave him the afternoon to see how he felt. There wasn’t an improvement so we pulled him. Skated again this morning. Again, improvement but we think this has to be cleaned up once. Shouldn’t be too long and when it does he won’t have to deal with it.”
Update III (December 5th): While the Jets team had the day off today Coach Maurice spoke to the Hockey Central Panel at Noon and they asked about Scheifele’s status. The Jets bench boss told them that the latest on 55 saying he is “Day to day. He got banged up there at the end* of the 2nd against Edmonton. Didn’t skate the next day because of our schedule. Took the morning skate, didn’t feel great so we held him out. There was an improvement before the Chicago game. We’re off the ice today again because of our game situation. We will get a good look at him tomorrow. If he is not right at 100% then we won’t use him. This is a short-term minor, minor in terms of length, injury that we just want 100% so he doesn’t have to deal with this for two more weeks.”
*Note: NHL.com lists two hits on Mark Scheifele late in the 2nd of that game against Edmonton. One by Andrej Sekera at 14:10 mark and one by Kris Russel at 15:23.
Update IV (December 6th): Following morning skate at the MTS Centre coach Maurice provided this update on his top centre saying “He’s getting better but he won’t go tonight. He skated this morning. Has felt incrementally stronger each day. This is not a long term injury and it’s not something once it gets cleaned up that we will have to monitor going forward but he won’t go tonight.
Update V (December 7th): It was an optional skate today and following same coach Maurice opened his scrum by updating the status of his top centre “Skated today. He’s not at 100% but better than he was yesterday so he’s just day-to-day. We will skate him again tomorrow and see how he feels.”
Final Update: Mark Scheifele returns to the Jets lineup healed from the injury he suffered against Edmonton. In his pre-game chat the Jets top centre indicated that the injury occurred when “I got hit against the dasher. Kinda upper part of my hamstring. It was something that wasn’t healing as well as I thought and it was just kind of day-by-day”.
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