Schmidt Placed on IR, Heinola Recalled from Moose

On Friday morning, the Winnipeg Jets announced that defenceman Nate Schmidt had been placed on the team's injured reserve hours after being checked in the head by Nashville's Tanner Jeannot. Schmidt was forced to leave the game on Thursday as he showed signs of a head/neck injury, which was later determined to be a concussion as a result of the heavy hit from Jeannot. “That’s hockey, he didn’t see him coming," Jets head coach Rick Bowness said post-game. "He’s a big guy and Nate didn’t see him coming, clearly. He’s fending off one guy and another guy comes out of nowhere." According to Bowness and some of Schmidt's teammates, the hit was probably clean, but just caught the defenceman in a vulnerable spot. "I don’t necessarily think it’s a dirty hit, or anything like that, but anytime you see a teammate go down on a hard check … to be honest, I’m probably trying to make that same check if the roles are reversed," Adam Lowry said. So for now, Schmidt will undergo testing and reassessment as he works his way through the NHL's concussion protocol, with no indication on his return to the lineup. At the moment, a number of players on the Jets have been battling a non-COVID related bug, including that of extra defenceman Kyle Capobianco, who would typically be thrown into action in this sort of circumstance. Unless he is brought back to health in time for Saturday's game it may be another familiar face that works his way into the lineup. The Jets also announced on Friday that Ville Heinola had been recalled on an emergency basis from the Manitoba Moose. Heinola though - much like that of Capobianco - has been sick and has missed the last four Moose games, prompting even more questions than answers as to Winnipeg's lineup for its two-game road trip through Vancouver and Seattle this weekend.