Winnipeg Jets Practice Report

The Jets will hit the ice for one final time before taking off some time for their Christmas break. If we were living in normal times today the team would be in Nashville to kick off the first game of a back-to-back but we sadly we are not and both games this week against the Predators and Stars have been postponed.

Even the modified plan of practicing today and tomorrow had to be amended with the NHL deciding today would be the last day for team activities.

We may gain some insight into the health of David Gustafsson and Evgeny Svechnikov who were both injured on Friday night against Washington. As well perhaps an update about Nate Schmidt who didn’t practice on Saturday or play on Sunday as he was under the weather according to interim head coach Dave Lowry.

Skate news:

According to Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press a number of players missing including the injured David Gustafsson and Evgeny Svechnikov as well as Adam Lowry and Josh Morrissey. A positive sign for the team is Nate Schmidt has returned to the ice.

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Reaction to early pause of the season which diminishes practice time.
2) Will they skate next Sunday? (1:17)
3) How would he assess the first 30 games and areas they need to improve on (2:00)
4) What are the challenges when things are so fluid right now? (3:02)
5) Updates on Adam Lowry/Josh Morrissey who were missing from skate (3:39)
6) Status of David Gustafsson (4:06)
7) Is there a more definitive timeline for Blake Wheeler? (4:30)

Health updates:

Interim head coach Dave Lowry indicated that Josh Morrissey was held off the ice for precautionary reasons (similar to what they did when Nate Schmidt wasn’t feeling 100%) . He also said they held Adam Lowry off the ice for “maintenance” and that he “should be ready to play”. Lowry did leave (and return) to the game on Sunday against the Blues.

In terms of David Gustafsson who was listed as day-to-day after he left the game Friday night against the update from coach was “Our intention is right now that he would skate with our group on Sunday.”

Last up was Blake Wheeler. Former head coach Paul Maurice had said last Tuesday that they would need three to four days to allow the swelling to go down before they had an update. The team put Wheeler on LTIR on the 19th (although they likely did it retroactively to the 11th) which means he’d have to miss at least 10 games/24 days. Interim head coach Dave Lowry wasn’t providing an update other than staying within the framework of LTIR as the timeline. He was asked a follow-up question about whether Wheeler could be expected to play once the 10 games/24 days timeline elapses and he said “I think right now it’s too early to say.”

Reassigned:

The team announced following practice that CJ Suess and Kristian Reichel have been reassigned to the Moose.

Up next:

The Jets and Moose will have an early Christmas holiday season. Expectation is the Jets will have an afternoon practice on Sunday sometime after 2 PM.

Wishing you all the best during your holidays.  We will still have all the latest Jets and Moose news posted on site.