Considering all the talk about a Dan Carcillo cross-check breaking his arm, it’s not a surprise that red-hot Winnipeg Jets forward Mathieu Perreault is out on Sunday and won’t play until at least after the All-Star break.
(The team is only labeling it an upper-body injury at this point. As usual with NHL injuries, it may be some time before we know the extent of his issues. It might not be a break after all, however.)
That doesn’t change the fact that it stings, though, as Blake Wheeler notes to the Winnipeg Sun’s Ken Wiebe.
“It hurts,” Wheeler said. “He’s a guy that is the definition of on-fire right now. He’s played awesome for us.”
Indeed, that’s a tough loss with how legitimate Winnipeg has been looking lately.
On the bright side, Evander Kane has been on a nice run of his own, and he looks to slide into Perreault’s spot alongside Mark Scheifele and Michael Frolik.
Still, there’s only so much you can sugarcoat losing a player who scored nine points in five games before being injured on Friday, especially if Kane struggles to find chemistry alongside linemates who may be better on paper.
That’s a bummer, but the league’s contenders learn to roll with injury punches. If the Jets want to gain that distinction, they’ll have to do it too … starting with tonight’s game against the struggling Arizona Coyotes.
