A win ... and a loss
Laine, Mason lead Jets over Rangers; Scheifele leaves game with injury
NEW YORK — “Fingers crossed.”
Those were not the words one would expect to be coming out of the mouth of Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler following an impressive victory at Madison Square Garden.
But while the Jets were mostly thrilled with what transpired during a 3-0 triumph over the New York Rangers, there was also an air of concern over the status of top centre Mark Scheifele.
Scheifele was involved in an odd collision in the neutral zone with Wheeler during the first period and seen on the bench trying to stretch out his right shoulder area.
While he was able to stay in the contest, Scheifele’s final shift came with 3:58 remaining in the second period and he left with what the Jets were simply calling an upper-body injury.
Before Scheifele made his way to the dressing room, cameras caught him mouthing the words “collarbone” and “hard to breathe” to a member of the Jets medical staff.
“We’re hopeful. It has nothing to do with his previous injury, so that’s the positive,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice, who was non-committal when asked if Scheifele was taken out simply as a precaution. “Well I mean he was pretty stiff there, we’ll know more tomorrow. That’s the best I can do.”
Maurice said there was no concern about leaving Scheifele (who was on the receiving end of a couple of big bodychecks, including one from Rangers defenceman Marc Staal) in the game after the initial collision.
“No, he was fine after. It just stiffened up really quickly,” said Maurice. “We wouldn’t put a player at risk under any circumstances. We monitor all our injuries very closely on the bench and as soon as he felt he was really starting to stiffen up we got him out of there.”
Maurice and the Jets will know more on Wednesday, but there won’t be an official update on Scheifele’s status until Thursday, at the earliest. That’s when the Jets, who are taking a mandatory day off on Wednesday, continue a sixgame road trip against the New Jersey Devils.
Scheifele, who missed 16 games earlier this season with a suspected shoulder injury, has 21 goals and 51 points in 50 games — including six goals and 13 points in 12 games since his return.
With Scheifele out of the game, Wheeler moved back to centre and Joel Armia was promoted to the top line.
By capturing a third consecutive game since losing 6-5 to the Nashville Predators after blowing a pair of two-goal leads, the Jets have won three in a row to improve to 40-179. Offensively, the red-hot Patrik Laine took care of all the goal scoring, recording his first hat trick of the season and fourth of his young career.
Laine is riding a nine-game point streak and has produced 13 goals and 19 points during that span.
The Finnish sniper beat Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist cleanly with two snapshots to the blocker side, then iced the game with an empty-netter that came with 33.4 seconds to go in regulation time.
“Just pure luck, I guess. I don’t know, man. That’s a good question,” said Laine, who is up to 38 goals and 61 points in 66 games. “It’s kind of a secret, so I don’t want everybody to know that.”
There’s really no secret. Laine’s shot and release are ridiculous.
The scary part is that most goalies know the shot is coming and they’re still having trouble stopping it when Laine unloads.
“It’s great. He’s just got such a unique shot that when you give him that type of time and space it’s a pretty difficult save for a goaltender to make just because of how quickly he gets it off, how accurate it is,” said Jets goalie Steve Mason. “It’s a lot of fun to watch right now. He’s scoring some big goals for us.”
Mason, who made his first NHL start since Jan. 5 as he worked his way back from his second concussion of the season, made 31 saves as he earned his first shutout with the Jets.
There was some consternation among the Jets fan base after Mason made 18 saves in a 5-4 overtime victory for the Manitoba Moose during a conditioning stint on Saturday. But Mason was confident going into this start and played like it — providing the type of steady performance that could earn him several more this month as the Jets look to try to keep Connor Hellebuyck fresh.
“I actually felt really comfortable right from the get-go. I felt sharp right from the start,” said Mason, who picked up his fourth win in what was just his 12th NHL appearance of the campaign. “It’s a great return. The guys played great in front of me. Overall it was a really contained game I think, from a defensive standpoint. I got a couple lucky breaks with (defenceman Ben Chiarot) making a good defensive play (on a wraparound attempt by Mats Zuccarello) in the first and then (Zuccarello) missing an open net in the second. In order to get a shutout you need some breaks, so the team played well.”