Ehlers misses practice due to new Covid Protocol

WINNIPEG - In a world full of acronyms, those in the National Hockey League will have to get used to a new one - CPRA.
It stands for Covid Protocol Related Absence, and it showed up in Winnipeg Jets training camp one day before they open the season against the Calgary Flames.
Nikolaj Ehlers wasn't on the ice for the final tune-up prior to the season opener and when asked for the reason why, head coach Paul Maurice gave the formal answer.
"He's a Covid Protocol Related Absence," Maurice said. "I think him playing tomorrow night is in the range of possibilities. There is a spectrum of things that causes you to be on the acronym squad. Any one of those can have a different outcome."

Jets general manager, Kevin Cheveldayoff, provided further clarification on the protocol related to CPRA.
"Say a player comes to the rink with the sniffles. He's going to get temperature checked and tested, then sent home," said Cheveldayoff. "Then there is a protocol that's going to have to be followed after that. There's not going to be a time frame attached to anything in that protocol. It's all going to be testing related."
With no time frame indicated, Ehlers' availability for Thursday is up in the air. But, the 40-minute practice had to go on and, with Ehlers not on the ice, Andrew Copp earned the promotion to the left wing with Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler.
That had an impact on the line rushes that followed. In full, the Jets looked like this on Wednesday:
Copp-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Stastny-Laine
Vesalainen-Lowry-Appleton
Perreault-Thompson-Lewis
Harkins
Morrissey-Poolman
Forbort-Pionk
Beaulieu-DeMelo
Niku
Thursday, Jan. 14, is a day Connor Hellebuyck has had circled since the NHL schedule was released.
It's a rematch with the Flames, who eliminated the Jets from the postseason in four games in August.

Hellebuyck, who went on to win the Vezina Trophy following the season, had a 0.904 save percentage in that series.
"We got beat in that series and I'm still bitter about it to this day. I want to win. They ruined our chance at a Stanley Cup. For me personally, I'm going to use it as motivation," said Hellebuyck.
"They're a good team, so hats off to them. They played a good series. I think it would be crazy for us not to use it to get a little jump energy wise."
Adam Lowry led the injury-depleted Jets in points with three that series, including a two-point effort in Game 2 - which the Jets won 3-2.
He also remembers that series well, especially the play of Sam Bennett. Calgary's 2014 first-round pick finished tied for his team lead with eight points, even as the Flames fell to the Dallas Stars in the next round.
Despite the changes to both rosters in the off-season, Lowry expects more of the same from Calgary.

"Having that familiarity with how they played in the bubble, we expect that style to be very similar. They have a lot of high-end skill. Their power play really burned us in that series," said Lowry.
"We know they're a big team, they can skate, they're physical, they're hard on the puck. They run really solid systems. They don't really have a weakness you can exploit. It's about making less mistakes than them."
Winnipeg will see Calgary nine times this season. Five of those meetings will occur over the first 25 days of the season, including a stretch of playing the Flames four consecutive times in a nine-day stretch to open February.
Given how the series went against the Flames, Maurice isn't sure what to expect tomorrow night.

"It seems over the last years that if there was ever an incident and some hype about what was going to come next, it was dead quiet. You never truly know," said Maurice.
"My feeling is playoffs are a different kind of animal. That was a playoff series and the intensity is really high and then it resets the next year. We'll see."
The tilt will be the first game at Bell MTS Place since Mar. 9, 2020 when the Jets beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2.
It has been a long time coming.
"I'm looking forward to this year. I've had a more enjoyable experience in these first few weeks than camps in recent memory just because there are more veteran guys," said Maurice. "Guys that you've brought into the league now understand what's expected and they're driving like that in practice. So I'm excited about it."