View from the Nosebleeds: Sick Bay Update

For those of you who attended or followed the events that took place last night at the MTS Centre, you might have noticed one name in particular that would kind of jump out at you: Eric Fehr. The former Washington Capital featured into multiple events, those being the Break-Away competition, where he went 2 for 2, and the Hardest Shot competition, where he topped out at 93 miles per hour. Not bad for a guy coming off shoulder surgery.

So what does all of this have to do with anything? Well Coach Noel said today that Fehr could potentially see limited action as soon as Saturday against the Flyers, as he has been officially cleared to play by team doctors.

I'm excited about this. I'm sure TJCAPS is excited too. Because I have been dying to see what this guy can bring to the table, and if he can slot into a position on the top 2 lines. I know he has the hands to score goals, he was a phenom in junior with the Brandon Wheat Kings, and he also plays a defensively responsible game, as grinding consumed the bulk of his responsibilities with the Capitals the past few years. 

So with one Jet looking to take flight for the first time this year (/terrible pun) we'll take a look at the rest of the Jets that are banged up after THE JUMP

We'll start with the bad and work our way to the almost good. You'll notice a pattern with the player positions pretty fast, methinks. 

• Derek Meech is on the shelf for 6-8 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a "lower-body injury". Look for him to return in January.
• Tobias Enstrom is still a month or so away from returning from a broken collar-bone suffered at the hands of Member Number 1 of the No-Fly list: Jack Skille.
• Randy Jones took a hard shot off the foot against the Islanders on November 3. He's listed as day-to-day, but if that foot is broken he might be out of action for another month.
• Ron Hainsey got hurt on October 17th against the Penguins. If anybody has an idea as to what this injury is, I would love to hear it. If memory serves he got nailed and left the game, and I have a feeling it's a concussion but I can't make that claim official until the club says that's what it is. So for now it's a mystery upper body injury that sees him miss a month of play time.
• Brett Festerling collided with AC Slater in practice on the 11th, suffered an upper body injury and will be out of action "longer than day-to-day". Another mystery injury, another defender on the shelf.
• Jim Slater: AC played like a beast against the Lightning on Monday and it cost him. He took one hell of a block on the 5 on 3 penalty kill that left him visibly hurting and questionable for Thursday's tilt against the Capitals.
• Zach Bogosian missed the Skills Competition due to a foot injury he picked up blocking a shot in the Lightning game, but should be good to go by Thursday night against the Caps.

So 6 defenders find themselves in various states of disrepair at the moment, however one has to mention a number of players have upped their game, and the players from St. Johns have also done a solid job. Mark Flood in particular has impressed me as he consistently makes all the right decisions out there for the Jets.

Hopefully AC Slater is good to go by tomorrow night, as predicting the lines is hard enough to do without missing a Centre.