Jacob Trouba practiced with his teammates in full Monday morning, skating in a regular red defensive jersey with the rest of the Jets’ blueliners, as opposed to the yellow non-contact jersey he had been sporting since returning from an ugly collision with Dallas Stars’ captain Jamie Benn last Tuesday.
Although clearing concussion protocol and getting in a full practice with the team Monday, Jets’ Head Coach Paul Maurice stressed the fact that Trouba will not be in the lineup until “everything checks out one hundred percent”.
“He’s cleared for full contact, so we will slowly start amping that up,” Maurice said. “But one of the challenges we will have is that there is not going to be (a lot of) practice time from now until the end of the season with our schedule. We’re in a different situation if we had lots of practice time, maybe that would come faster. We’re not in a hurry. We want him back when he’s banging on the door and there’s no doubt left.”
Jacob Trouba may not like what his coach believes when it comes to taking the slow approach in getting his 24-year-old defenceman back in the lineup, but the well-travelled bench boss certainly has a point.
“As far as we know medically, with concussion protocols and all of the other things, he’s good to go. That was a pretty significant hit – but he also came off it really good. He didn’t have symptom-lapse days. He went straight-line feeling great. He wrote his test and all is good. But in this, there is always stuff that we don’t know. We’re going to be patient right now because we have time to be. In five or six days, if he’s practicing and taking hits and he’s banging on my door, saying ‘put me in’ then we will talk about it. But I’m going to hold him out longer than he probably wants to be held out.”
In 52 games this season, Trouba has three goals, 22 points and 32 minutes in penalties to go along with a +7 rating. In his four post-season games in 2015, Trouba picked up two assists.
By Carter Brooks
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
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