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Injury-Plagued Jets Struggle to Keep Pace With Knights, Down 3-1 in Series |
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It has been a good series so far between the Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights. After the Jets took Game 1, then the Knights took Game 2, it was starting to feel like there was more excitement in this series than many anticipated.
After the Game 3 thriller that left Jets fans heartbroken, it was even more of an eye-catching series than before. The Knights took Game 4, 4-2, and while the Jets played a decent game, they are playing severely under-manned.
Nikolaj Ehlers is still out, but is expected to make his way back into the lineup if the series extends to six or seven games, but Game 5 is still a possibility. After taking an unnecessary hit from Ryan Hartman, Ehlers left with an upper-body injury, and was given a two-week timeline, which Thursday will mark the two-week point.
Josh Morrissey will miss the rest of the series with a lower-body injury, thought it isn't clear what the injury was and what aggravated it. There are a lot of rumours floating around, some suggesting a three-week recovery, and some longer term.
Mark Scheifele left Game 4 just over five minutes in with an apparent hand injury, and will be re-evaluated today. Scheifele was tripped by Brossoit at full speed and had a hard crash into the boards, and not long after he received a pass and immediately skated of the ice and down the tunnel. If I had to speculate, I would assume the collision with the boards resulted in a broken hand that was really noticed when he played the puck.
Cole Perfetti was originally given an eight-week recovery period for his upper-body injury and with that timeline just expiring, I am curious how Perfetti is. There hasn't been much of an update from anybody in a while, and I haven't been hearing anything, either. If he is close to returning, and the Jets can hold off a little longer, he could play a huge role on this team right now.
The game itself was exciting, and the Jets kept it tight, but the story of the game was certainly focused on the amount of losses they have suffered to their roster.
That can't be the only story though.
Connor Hellebuyck made some really nice saves, and the Jet's depleted roster weren't able to out-play the Knights, who remain pretty healthy. At this point in the series, moving forward, the Jets don't have the capacity to be the better team anymore, but they do have the chance to be the harder working team. Every game so far, the Jets were by far the harder working team, and despite the 3-1 stranglehold the Knights have on the Jets, every game could have gone either way.
I am quite impressed with this group, and the versatility and resiliency that they have been displaying. They have been putting up an impressive fight.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger • 
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