The Jets likely will be without two of their top forwards for Game 2 of their NHL qualifying round series Monday vs. the Flames.
Center Mark Scheifele and winger Patrik Laine are considered doubtful because of injuries, TSN's Sara Orlesky reported late Sunday. Both were hurt in Winnipeg's 4-1 loss to Calgary in Game 1 on Saturday.
A source tells me tonight that Mark Scheifele's injury is not believed to be long term but he is still doubtful for game 2 Monday afternoon. Patrik Laine is also doubtful. #NHL #TSN
— Sara Orlesky (@saraorlesky) August 3, 2020
The report that Scheifele's injury is not considered long-term should be encouraging to the Jets. He needed assistance skating off the ice appearing to suffer a serious lower-body injury. He slammed into the boards awkwardly while the Flames' Matthew Tkachuk was trailing him.
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Tkachuk's history of chippiness had the Jets believing he tried to intentionally injure Scheifele by slicing his leg with a skate. Jets coach Paul Maurice said Saturday that Tkachuk made a "dirty, filthy hit" that could have ended Scheifele's career. He said Sunday that he would "stick by every word" he said.
Maurice doesn't believe Tkachuk jumped onto the ice looking to injure Scheifele, but he's also convinced the contact was not the accident Tkachuk claims it was.
"I think he plays at a level and he's on the edge he crosses it sometimes. He crossed it in my mind, clearly," Maurice said.
Flames coach Geoff Ward shrugged off Maurice's comments, saying they were coming from a veteran coach who was sticking up for one of his best players and was trying to work the league's disciplinarians.
"I understand what Paul's doing," Ward said. "He's defending his player. He's trying to get an elite player in our lineup potentially taken out or suspended. And he's trying to create some energy, probably, in his own room."
Ward said the the NHL ruled that "that there's going to be no further discussion about" the play, "and so we move on."
Laine appeared to suffer an upper-body injury when he was squeezed up against the end boards in the third period. He was later seen holding his left arm on the bench.
Both players visited specialists on Sunday, Maurice said.
Games 2 and 3 of this best-of-five series in the Edmonton bubble are Monday and Tuesday.
