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DENVER – The Winnipeg Jets will be without the services of their captain Adam Lowry for a little while.

Head coach Scott Arniel said that Lowry, who missed the final two periods of Monday’s 5-2 loss to Utah, will be out week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

“It’s obviously a big blow,” said Arniel, adding the injury occurred when Lowry fell behind the net early in the first. “He played the rest of the period. It really affected him in a lot of what he needed to do.”

The 31-year-old has 11 goals and 26 points this season and on the defensive side, Lowry is heavily relied upon – especially in the face-off circle. He leads the team with 415 defensive zone draws, with the next closest being Rasmus Kupari at 177.

It’ll be a test, not only for the centres, but for everyone on the ice tonight against the Colorado Avalanche (28-19-1).

“It’s by committee now, especially tonight against (Nathan) MacKinnon and (Mikko) Rantanen and those guys,” said Arniel. “Everyone is going to sooner or later end up against those guys. Like we did in our building, we have to be responsible – and throw (Devon) Toews and (Cale) Makar in there too – when those guys are out there, we have to be real responsible in how we’re playing them.”

Mason Appleton, who has spent the better part of the season (prior to his own injury) on Lowry’s right wing, knows every player in the room will have to step up in Lowry’s absence.

Perhaps getting right into game action against a divisional opponent in the Avalanche is the best way to do it.

“They have one of the most deadly lines there is,” said Appleton. “It’s going to be a collective effort to shut those guys down. Hopefully we can win some of the other match-ups too. You have to play a really tight game when you’re playing in Colorado – good goaltending, good defence, and capitalize when the chances are there.”

Lowry’s injury meant that Winnipeg’s line rushes at the morning skate looked different than they have been over the last handful of games:

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo

Ehlers-Namestnikov-Vilardi

Niederreiter-Kupari-Perfetti

Barron-Gustafsson-Appleton
Morrissey-DeMelo

Samberg-Pionk

Fleury-Stanley

Heinola-Miller

Alex Iafallo played a total of 313:51 of five-on-five time with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor dating back to last season (according to Natural Stat Trick). Winnipeg holds a slight edge of 13 goals to 12 with that line on the ice.

“I’m just going to keep playing my game,” said Iafallo. “I’ll talk with them before the game, go over some plays, and keep getting to the net. I’ll keep playing my game and do my best with them.”

There was good news mixed in with the bad news of Lowry’s injury. Appleton, who has missed the last 11 games with a lower-body injury, is ready to return. As is Haydn Fleury, whose lower-body ailment kept him out for a dozen contests.

“It always feels long. A month away is a decent amount of time that you have to ease back into it a little bit,” said Appleton. “You’re not going to feel great right way. I’ve been in this situation before. I’ll just try and build my game and get going. I’m excited to be back for sure.”

Both teams will be trying to bounce back from losses tonight.

The Jets (31-14-3) started their current two-game road trip with a defeat in Utah, while the Avalanche dropped a 3-1 final against Minnesota.

Arniel is confident in his group’s ability to leave the disappointment of the loss in Utah behind and focus solely on trying to win their third game of the four-game season series with Colorado.

“We go by the 24-hour rule here,” said Arniel. “We can’t worry about Utah, we have them on Friday at home, we’ll worry about that. We need to be good against this Colorado team. They lost the other night at home, they’re going to be angry. We have to be at our best.”

And Iafallo believes the Jets will respond.

“We have to get back to playing our way on the road,” said Iafallo. “We’ve talked a lot about it the last couple days. We have to push the pace early, whether that’s hitting guys on the first few shifts and creating that aggressive start. We just have to stick together and do things right.”

Puck drop is set for 8:30 pm CT.