That’s because the Jets’ leading goal scorer and cornerstone of the franchise, Patrik Laine, is out indefinitely with a concussion.
The Finnish phenom, who leads all rookies in scoring with 37 points and is tied with Toronto’s Auston Matthews for the goal-scoring lead with 21, got rocked by an open-ice hit from Buffalo defenseman Jake McCabe in the third period of Saturday afternoon 4-3 loss to the Sabres.
“Patty’s got a concussion,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice after the Jets practice on Sunday.
The 18-year-old was tested Saturday in Buffalo and saw the Jets’ doctors Sunday after returning to Winnipeg. Maurice said no timetable has been set for Laine’s return to the line-up.
“We’ll wait ’til the symptoms subside and then you start increasing workload and getting back on the ice. There can’t be (a timetable) on any of these (injuries). We have players this season that have gone through it. There’s no timeline,” he said.
Maurice was also quick to add he didn’t believe there was anything dirty about McCabe’s hit. In fact, with a row of stitches below a swollen black right eye, McCabe looks to have taken the worst of it.
“It was an awfully hard hit. Those happen in the games. It wasn’t dirty. I love Patty Laine. I’m going to protect my players all day long. I don’t have a problem with the hit,” he said.
The Jets lost despite going into the third period with a 3-1 lead, failing for the eighth time this season to turn a two-game winning streak into a three-game run.
The good news is Laine attended the Jets practice on Sunday in street clothes and was seen walking out of the rink in Buffalo on Saturday under his own power.
The Flames are leading the three-game season series thus far. They beat the Jets — with Laine patrolling right wing — 6-2 in Calgary on Dec. 10. They play one final time in Winnipeg on March 11.
The Flames won three of their last four games, including a split with the Vancouver Canucks over the weekend.
Last week, they defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 in a game that fueled speculation that long-time Flames captain Jarome Iginla could be on his way back to Calgary at the trade deadline. Iginla, who won the Maurice Richard trophy as the NHL’s top goal scorer in 2002 and shared it in 2004, has struggled this season. He has scored just five goals and 11 points in 39 games — putting him on pace for the lowest offensive totals of his career — but has openly mused about a final run for a Stanley Cup.
With the worst record in the NHL this season, the Avalanche are likely to be sellers at the trade deadline.
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