WINNIPEG- Tyler Toffoli is truly hoping he has paid his dues when it comes to battling the flu.
The Jets forward has had the flu, not once but twice this season and clearly would like to avoid battling with it again. Toffoli returned to the practice ice this morning at hockey for all centre ready to get back it.
“I woke up in the middle of the night and obviously wasn’t feeling right. I tried to sleep it off, woke up in the morning and kind of figured I wasn’t going to be ready to go and obviously unfortunate,” said Toffoli of the illness.
“But it's obviously nice to be at home and resting and watching the guys get a win.”
It appears that Toffoli will be playing with Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton against one of his former teams, the Calgary Flames on Thursday night. Rick Bowness said today that Nino Niederreiter will miss at least a week after suffering a cut on the back of his leg Monday against Los Angeles.
“I think I've been around I played with a lot of different guys, and I try not to change my game too much,” said Toffoli.
“I think at the end of the day, I'm out there to shoot and create opportunities and create offense and what my game is kind of built on is forechecking, getting the puck back in the ozone and creating opportunities.”
The Jets third line has been on their game as of late containing the Eichel line (Vegas), Pinto line (Ottawa) and the Kopitar line (Los Angeles). The trio was especially dominant against the Kopitar line on Monday in a huge win and Mason Appleton expects to pick up where they left off tomorrow with Toffoli replacing Niederreiter.
“Toff is such a smart player; I think he’ll be able to read off us really easy. The biggest thing is he’s a right-shot and I’m used to playing with two (lefties), so I’m usually finding that side slot on the right side because they can’t hit that one-timer as a lefty,” said Appleton.
“So, it’s kind of going to be me and Toff getting in and out of those holes together. All three of us can go down low and win battles and make easy plays down there.”
Lowry, Sean Monahan and Logan Stanley also missed practice this morning. Lowry and Monahan were maintenance so it is expected that they will be on the ice tomorrow against Calgary, but Stanley was the next man up in the battling the flu department.
After the night that Cole Perfetti had on Monday (2G, 1A), he has earned the opportunity to stay in the Jets top six forward group. He will remain with Sean Monahan and Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and Gabriel Vilardi will also stay intact.
"Well, yeah. We're not going to take him off that line now. I mean, he's earned it. We told him when you back in, we'll try to get you more ice time with the top six,” said Rick Bowness.
“He took full advantage of it, so we'll go right back with it again. Listen, the game is all about adjustments. That's what it is. You see something you like, you let it go. You see something you don't like; you change it. Right now, we'll take a look at this, and we'll go from there."
