December was a rough time for coach Maurice as it seemed like every other day he was announcing another defenceman was lost to injury. Jacob Trouba’s turn came on December 16th when the bench boss announced his sophomore defenceman would be out until early February with an upper body injury.
Now the Jets have proven to be a resilient bunch and they were able to get back Mark Stuart and Evander Kane well before their original February projections.
Today at the pre-game skate at American Airlines Center Jacob Trouba skated as a forward for Evander Kane. This got Jets fans buzzing that he was close to returning to the lineup.
Coach Maurice addressed this in his post-skate scrum when asked about the progress of Trouba “He’s getting closer. Back on the ice and he’s able to handle pucks now. We were hopeful on the early onset of the injury that around the All-Star break he might be a player. I think we are probably still at that I’m not sure if it’s before but it probably won’t be too soon after”.
When asked if he has been cleared for contact the coach explained that “He’s wearing a normal sweater out there but we also know that we are in morning skate so there is not going to be too much banging out there”.
The next question was whether Trouba would wear a regular jersey in a non game day skate coach Maurice indicated “that will be determined by the trainers so that question still hasn’t gotten asked. We didn’t throw him out there in one today because we knew there wasn’t going to be any contact.” Follow up question was whether he could be wearing a powder blue non-contact jersey at the next practice the Jets bench boss said “correct”.
While Trouba, like any hockey player feels he is ready to go, it will bear watching what sort of jersey he wears in the next regular practice. Provided coach Maurice doesn’t put him back in the lineup, the next non game day skate is Monday, January 19th. Stay tuned to see what colour jersey the young defenceman is wearing and for an update following practice on his status.
