Banged-up Jets preparing for tough series with bruising Stars

The Winnipeg Jets are waiting to see if they’ll be at full strength for Round 2 against the Dallas Stars.

WINNIPEG — Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey were noticeable at the Winnipeg Jets’ optional skate on Tuesday, but not in a really great way.

The two injured stars were wearing non-contact yellow jerseys and are questionable to play in Wednesday’s second-round playoff opener against the Dallas Stars — the first time the teams will meet in the NHL post-season.

“We’ll go day to day here,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We’ll see where they’re at for (Wednesday).

Scheifele was injured in Game 5 against the St. Louis Blues, a series the Jets won with a thrilling 4-3 double-overtime victory on Sunday.

The top-line centre has been skating and participated in Tuesday’s practice in a limited way.

Arniel was including defenceman Logan Stanley in his status update, who was also wearing a yellow jersey. He and veteran blueliner Morrissey were both injured in Game 7 and only skated ahead of the practice.

Dallas, which defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 in Game 7 last Saturday, is also dealing with some injury question marks for the first game of the Western Conference clash.

Forward Jason Robertson, who led the Stars with 35 goals, missed the first round because of a lower-body injury suffered in the team’s final regular-season game.

He had a full practice with the Stars on Tuesday in Dallas. Head coach Pete DeBoer told reporters “he’s close” to returning to game action.

It was a similar progress report for defenceman Miro Heiskanen, who had knee surgery in early February but is also practising.

“We don’t have to play him 26 minutes and that wouldn’t be the plan,” DeBoer said of Heiskanen.

The Jets earned home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs after finishing first in the league with a Presidents’ Trophy-winning 116 regular-season points. Game 2 is Friday.

Dallas finished second in the Central Division and third in the conference with 106 points.

The Jets won three of four games against the Stars during the regular season, including a 4-0 shutout on April 10 when the clubs were vying for top spot in the division.

Jets winger Kyle Connor and Stars forward Mikko Rantanen both have 12 playoff points heading into the series.

Rantanen scored a third-period hat trick in his team’s series-clinching win over Colorado.

“They’re a heck of a team,” Jets defenceman Neal Pionk said of the Stars. “Really well-structured, really tight checking and they have a lot of skill, too. So that’s what we’re prepared for this series.”

Winnipeg’s series against St. Louis finished with 623 combined hits. The Jets dished out 322 of them.

Dallas and Colorado combined for 492 hits in their series, with the Avalanche throwing 284.

Arniel said the Stars are a big team and it’s “wait and see” about how physical the games will be.

“Each series, each team kind of takes on its own life,” he said. “They got three lines, real solid lines offensively. They can do things, obviously, defensively well.

“So I think that it’s a different sort of look to what we just saw. But yeah, we know these guys. They’ve been hot on our tail all year long, so it’s a great matchup.”

DeBoer has said Winnipeg’s defensive strength will be a focus.

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck claimed a second straight William M. Jennings Trophy this season as the goaltender who played a minimum of 25 games for the team that allowed the fewest goals against (2.32 average) in the league.

Hellebuyck finished the St. Louis series with a subpar .830 save percentage and 3.85 goals-against average. Dallas netminder Jake Oettinger had a .911 save percentage and 2.85 goals-against average against Colorado.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.

Judy Owen, The Canadian Press