Jets’ Cole Perfetti Out 7-10 Days with Shoulder Injury
The injury news keeps getting worse for the Winnipeg Jets, who’ll be without Cole Perfetti for at least a week – if not longer.
Perfetti, who suffered a shoulder injury following a collision with Boston Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk on Dec. 22nd, missed the final game before the holiday break against the Washington Capitals and was absent from Tuesday’s first team practice afterwards.
According to head coach Rick Bowness, the 20-year-old will likely be sidelined for the next seven-to-10 days. Bowness provided an encouraging update regarding Saku Maenalanen, though, saying the veteran forward could return in a week or so.
The Jets were already without Maenalanen, Blake Wheeler, Mason Appleton, Nikolaj Ehlers, Nate Schmidt and Logan Stanley heading into Tuesday’s showdown versus the Minnesota Wild. Now, they’ll continue to attempt to keep their heads above water until reinforcements arrive.
“Injuries force you into situations,” Bowness said. “You have to adapt the best you can.
“We’ll see where it goes. They’re our best players, we have last change, and in saying that we have to start winning more face-offs so we can control that a little bit better. They’re our best players and we’ll see where it goes.”
Replacing Perfetti – who owns six goals and 20 points in 33 games this season – will be difficult for Winnipeg, especially since the left-hander had already been thrust into an increased role out of necessity. As a result, he logged 17:33 of ice-time in Boston, his second-highest total of 2022-23.
Winnipeg has needed to persevere without several regular contributors all season long, so moving forward without Perfetti shouldn’t be any different. But after losing both halves of the back-to-back before departing for the holidays, the stress of constantly playing shorthanded is increasingly becoming more taxing each game.
“We’ve had injuries all year… we’ve been playing well, competing, and winning games,” Pierre-Luc Dubois said of his club attempting to overcome its rash of injuries. “We had a lot of injuries against Boston. I don’t think they’ve lost in regulation at home. We gave them a really good game. Washington, they’re a good team at home, we gave them a good game. Losing is frustrating, injuries are frustrating, but it’s just part of hockey.
“Every team has injuries so, for us, the guys that (have) come in and played have played really well. They’ve helped us all year.”
Without Perfetti, Bowness moved centre Mark Scheifele up to the club’s top line, positioning him next to Dubois and Kyle Connor. The hope is for that trio to carry the load offensively over this next stretch of three games in five nights.
Scheifele has previously played on the wing and did so following Dubois’ arrival from Columbus in 2021. He also centred a top line alongside Connor and Wheeler for numerous seasons, so joining Nos. 80 and 81 should feel pretty familiar.
“Scheif’s a really smart player,” Dubois said. “Whenever you come back into the [defensive] zone, it’s just communication, a little understanding of where everyone wants to be. Especially the two of us, we have a lefty and a righty, so on face-offs, I can take them on my strong side, he can take them on his strong side and there’s no complications there.
“I’ve played right-wing before, I like playing right-wing. As long as you communicate, as long as you talk on the bench, on the ice and always have your heads up and stuff like that, I think we will be fine.”
Despite these never-ending injuries, the Jets currently sit second in the Central Division at 21-12-1 with 43 points, three points shy of the division-leading Dallas Stars. But considering how many players are missing from their lineup, things could be much worse for the organization.
After missing the playoffs last season, the franchise appears poised to make its sixth postseason appearance since returning to Winnipeg in 2012.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @ThomasHall85
Photo: Ken Lund. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.