In the season ending media availability with now former Jets head coach Rick Bowness last Thursday we were provided a window into some of the injuries guys were dealing with before and during the first round playoff series with the Avalanche.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
We already knew about the hand injury suffered at the end of game 3 in Colorado that Brenden Dillon was dealing with that kept him out of the last couple of playoff games. He said he got “super, super lucky all things considered. No nerve, no long-term damage. Like I said as soon as I could get the stitches out I was going to be playing. That was my mindset.”. He said he was hopeful he could have returned for a game 6 or 7.
During game 4 in Colorado the Jets had lost Vlad Namestnikov after he took a puck to the face.
Scary moment as Vlad Namestnikov is struck in the head by a slap shot and exits the game pic.twitter.com/mcUqJJcpBu
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 28, 2024
Rick Bowness advised the day after that Namestnikov had a “fractured cheekbone. There’s no orbital damage but they kept him overnight and he’s on his way back.” He wouldn’t rule him out for game 5.” Of course we now know that he wouldn’t play in game 5 for Winnipeg. He was at the retirement announcement for Rick Bowness sporting quite the bruise on his face.
All through training camp last September Nikolaj Ehlers was dealing with neck spasms that began on day 1 of camp in Winnipeg although it didn’t become a clear issue until day 2 when he left skate early. It kept him out of all the pre-season games for the Jets and while there was some concern he would miss time to start the season those proved unfounded as he played in game 1 on October 11th. In fact he played all 82 games for the Jets which was the first time he had done that since the 2017-18 season.
When the formal chat with him ended on Thursday at Canada Life he was asked if he’d be joining Team Denmark at the World Championship. He confirmed he wouldn’t be as he still wanted to deal with the neck issue that plagued him since last September. He didn’t think surgery would be required but he wasn’t certain.
It was pretty clear that Jets captain Adam Lowry had been dealing with something for awhile as he missed a number of practices or morning skates which the coaching staff always labelled as “maintenance”. Rick Bowness indicated that “Adam’s had a bad hand the whole series” although as he detailed it didn’t hold him back from continuing to do what he needed to do to try to keep his team in the fight.
Bowness also provided more details on Morgan Barron‘s injury suffered in game 81 against the Kraken saying he suffered a knee injury which would have kept him out of the first round series.
Suspect there was a laundry list of other injuries but those are the ones we know about.
