Dustin Byfuglien could have picked a worse time to be injured — but not much. Losing him leaves the Winnipeg Jets in trouble in their run to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
It appeared Byfuglien was favoring his right arm when he left the ice Wednesday following a scrum with Ottawa Senators forward Erik Condra.
Friday, Jets coach Paul Maurice delivered the bad news: Byfuglien's "upper-body" injury could keep him out at least two weeks. That came in addition to word top center Bryan Little will miss at least two games with an undisclosed injury from Wednesday. Sportsnet called it, of course, an "upper-body" injury.
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With other injuries further shortening their roster, the Jets headed off for Nashville to start a four-game road trip. There was a sense of déjà vu, the Winnipeg Free Press noted, because the Jets had similar injury problems last March.
They are two points up in the Western Conference's playoff race entering the weekend, but face the Central Division's top teams in their next two games. After visiting the Predators, they face the St. Louis Blues on their road swing.
Byfuglien, a defenseman with scoring skills, has 15 goals and 27 assists.
"I won’t give you the exact poundage but we’re going to miss him," Maurice said. "He’s a force back there for sure. We’ve dealt with a number of these injuries on our back end. We have good people to put in the lineup and they’ve played well and won games."
Little might return late in the road trip and at least was with the team as it flew south. There was little information on his injury, but Little is the team's second-leading scorer.
Losing those two players is a one-two punch to the gut for the Jets. Both Big Buff and Little will be hard to replace, but Maurice saw his centerman as a critical loss.
“We’ve been comfortable with [Little] and [Andrew Ladd] just being in our lineup the whole time," Maurice said. "And that becomes a bigger problem in terms of what it does, what you look like up front, in terms of who fills that hole, your options at center ice.”
While Maurice shuffled lines, he had Adam Pardy in Byfuglien's pairing with Jay Harrison.
Defenseman Mark Stuart was struck in the face by a puck in practice on Friday. The Jets also are missing left wingers Mathieu Perreault and Matt Halischuk, and defenseman Ben Chiarot. But Maurice believes his team can overcome those injuries.
"So the other veteran players have to make sure their game is at their best and they’re trying to every night," Maurice said. "But you have to make sure everybody has the no-passenger concept. Everybody’s got to add something to it."