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Myers, who’s missed 16 straight, has ‘plateaued’ in recovery

Tyler Myers

Tyler Myers

AP

Tyler Myers has been out of action since Nov. 11 with a lower-body ailment, but appeared to turn a corner last week when he resumed skating.

Now, Myers has turned another corner -- but for the Jets, it’s in the wrong direction.

“He’s plateaued in his recovery,” Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said on Wednesday, per Illegal Curve. “We are not seeing enough progress to put him on the ice and it will stay there until he gets out of the cycle that he’s in and until he feels good.

“But he’s not ready to skate yet.”

The development has to be frustrating for the Jets. When Myers was first hurt, he had five points through 11 games and was averaging over 22 minutes per night. The injury was initially classified as day-to-day but now, as the Winnipeg Sun points out, it’s stretched over a month.

Myers will miss his 17th game in a row on Thursday, when Winnipeg hosts Florida.

The injury has thinned out Winnipeg’s blueline, obviously, but head coach Paul Maurice has adapted by giving heavy minutes to his top four of Dustin Byfuglien, Tobias Enstrom, Jacob Trouba and Josh Morrissey (Ben Chiarot and Paul Postma were the little-used fifth and sixth d-men in Sunday’s loss to Edmonton).

Myers’ absence has really opened the door for Morrissey, the 13th overall pick in 2013. Morrissey, 21, is in his first full NHL campaign but hasn’t looked out of place at all, which caught Maurice off guard.

“I am surprised,” Maurice said, per NHL.com. “You never like to admit that because it sounds like you didn’t have faith. Watching him play now, he’s so much further along in his development that we could possibly have expected.”