It was six weeks and one day ago that Winnipeg Jets then leading scorer Mark Scheifele crashed into the boards, sustaining an upper-body injury the team announced would keep him out of game action for 6-to-8 weeks.
Apparently, six weeks and two days to be exact.
Schiefele will return to the Winnipeg lineup on Friday when the Jets play host to the St. Louis Blues. Winnipeg could enter play Friday atop the Central Division; they're ahead of the Nashville Predators by one point, and Nashville plays the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. The Jets were able to keep maintain their footing in the division and then some without Scheifele, producing an 11-2-3 stretch of hockey.
"We have a good team," Scheifele said. "It takes a full team. That's what good teams do. There are injuries that happen all over the league, and our team did a good job of facing every injury.
"The team has been able to step up and gotten wins."
🎥 "Our team did a great job at facing every injury" explains Mark Scheifele on the Jets' continued success, despite the increasing amount of injuries. He elaborates with "Our team has been able to step up and has gotten wins, and that makes everyone happy." pic.twitter.com/FiUSuW8VnS
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) February 8, 2018
When he was healthy, Scheifele was on one of the most productive lines in the NHL with Jets captain Blake Wheeler. When Scheifele sustained his injury, Wheeler slid over to center in Scheifele's place, but was back on Scheifele's right wing at practice on Thursday, an indication of where he could play in his return on Friday against St. Louis. On the opposite wing was Patrik Laine.
"He's obviously one of our top players, and one of the top players in the league," Wheeler said. "I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to play with him again. He and I have developed a pretty good chemistry. Me, him and [Laine] have the makings of what could be a pretty good line, so we're excited about that."
The Jets had seen some line juggling in the early months of the season, where Laine spent some time with Bryan Little and Nikolaj Ehlers on the second line. Mathieu Perreault skated in that spot, while Laine moved up to skate with Scheifele and Wheeler, a spot that Kyle Connor had been in for a good chunk of time. (Connor skated on the third line at Winnipeg practice.)
"Right after Mark went down, a bunch of good things happened for us," head coach Paul Maurice said. "We've had a number of people have to play against the other team's best, and for us to win be better than they are. Now Mark comes back, so it's another option on the bench to run your lines, to even some minutes out a little bit."
When Scheifele sustained his injury, he had recorded 38 points in 38 games, and was 14th in the NHL in scoring (his linemate, Wheeler, had 42 points and sat in eighth). Scheifele finished seventh overall in the scoring race last season with 82 points, while Wheeler finished tied for 11th with 74.