As being reported by our good friend Darrin Bauming, it appears as though Dustin Byfuglien will miss his third straight game tonight against the Florida Panthers with what’s only being diagnosed as a lower-body injury.
Claude Noel says he doesn’t expect Dustin Byfuglien to be out a matter of weeks, and also doesn’t expect him to play tomorrow either.
— Darrin Bauming (@DarrinBauming) February 4, 2013
This isn't exactly breaking news as these reports surfaced yesterday, but it's still a huge blow to a team that is looking for their first win in over a week, as they will yet again be forced to compete without one of their best players.
Although the Jets‘ powerplay hasn’t exactly struggled sans Byfuglien in the line-up — Paul Postma and Andrew Ladd each registered a goal on the man advantage Friday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning — they have missed his 26+ minutes of average TOI.
Without Big Buff, Winnipeg has relied on more production from a reserve of bottom pairing defensemen, with results that have varied from admirable to nose-pinchingly bad.
The good news is that Byfuglien isn’t expected to miss weeks worth of time, as reported by Bauming in the previous tweet. The bad news is that Antti Miettinen was originally listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury, one which still has him out of the line-up some three weeks later.
For the Jets', Buff can't return can't happen soon enough.