Mason Appleton Postgame The Winnipeg Jets are set to face off against the Ottawa Senators from Canadian Tire Centre at 2:00 PM central time on Saturday. The team, however, will be without one of its three top-line players for the 36th time this season. Head coach Rick Bowness announced that Mark Scheifele has not progressed as well as he would have expected in relation to his lower-body injury, and will not suit up on Saturday vs. Ottawa. Scheifele is, however, along with the team on the road trip, in hopes of returning to action either against the Boston Bruins (Monday) or Toronto Maple Leafs (Wednesday). “We will re-evaluate on Monday," Bowness said following Friday's skate. "He’s making progress, it’s going on a little bit longer than we originally thought so that’s fine, that’s all part of it, so we’ll see where’s he’s at on Monday.” Having started the year together, the Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Gabe Vilardi line has seen all three players active to start games just eight times, with two of those games featuring early injuries to two of the linemates. Losing Vilardi for 18 games just six minutes into the third game of the year, Winnipeg then lost Kyle Connor after having Vilardi back for just four games. Connor missed another 16 games, to which Vilardi and Scheifele bot suited up. But, as the 2023-24 storyline goes, Scheifele has since been out the past two games (including Connor's return on Tuesday) and will now miss Saturday's contest in Ottawa.
