As of press time, the Jets have scored one or fewer goals in four of their last six games, with their offensive woes continuing in their December 29 game against Minnesota.

The bigger headline, of course, was the loss of defenseman Dustin Byfuglien. The Jets will be without their highest-scoring defenceman until “at least the all-star break,” according to head coach Paul Maurice.

Though the Jets never announced specifically what the injury was, it seems apparent, thanks to the replay of Byfuglien’s collision with Minnesota forward Luke Kunin, that the injury occurred somewhere in his ankle area, and ankle injuries are no laughing matter in the NHL. I would expect that timeline to be pushed back.

That said, Buff has proven to be a freak of nature and maybe he will heal up in time for the start of February.

In the meantime, Maurice will have to find someone to take the place of his top defenseman, who prior to being injured was on pace for a career high 69 points, with 29 points in 32 games this season.

It’s going to be a tall order.

Heading into the new year, Maurice is one of only two coaches in the NHL who has played just six defensive pairings for more than 50 minutes together this season, according to Corsica Hockey’s defence pairing chart. What is even more peculiar is the fact that Josh Morrissey and Jacob Trouba have yet to play 50 or more minutes with anyone else on the roster, but they have spent nearly 700 minutes on the ice together. With Big Buff out, it may be time for Maurice to break up his top pairing.

Deciding who plays with whom will likely come about through a process of trial and error, and it remains to be seen who will be the sixth defenseman on any given night. Should the Jets seek outside help on the back end, that can’t be ruled out either. But after a weekend in which the Oilers overpaid for a defenseman in two separate trades, it may be wiser for Chevaldayoff to do what he does best: hold his cards close to his chest and be patient.

Of course, should he decide to stagger his top pairing, it will give Morrissey yet another opportunity to be groomed into the Jets’ top defenseman—a role he looked more than capable of filling when Byfuglien missed three games due to injury last month. During those three games, Morrissey had 10 shots, a goal, and an assist, and he averaged a whopping 28:44 in three wins. Morrissey already has 21 points this season, which leaves him five off of his career high. At 23 years of age, he is finally beginning to display some of the offensive touch that led the Jets to snag him with the thirteenth overall pick in the 2013 draft.

By the same token, this could be viewed as an equally huge opportunity for Trouba, who is set to once again become a restricted free agent by season’s end—only this time around, teams will have the option to “offer-sheet” him. This means that another team could offer him a contract; should Trouba decide to sign that contract, the Jets would have seven days to match it.

While this is still very rare, especially in today’s NHL, one can’t ignore the fact that top-three right-hand shooting defensemen are a rare commodity. A little extra ice time, and time away from Morrissey, would give Trouba a chance to show he can be the top-pairing defenseman that scouts thought he could be when he was taken by the Jets with the ninth pick in 2012.

It will be interesting to see how things play out over the course of the next month for the Jets.

I don’t think the loss of Byfuglien is serious enough to knock them out of the playoffs, or even out of the race for top spot in the Central Division. Heading into 2019, the Jets are tied with the Vegas Golden Knights and Calgary Flames atop the Western Conference, with 50 points. In their own division, the Jets sit four points ahead of the Predators, who struggled mightily throughout December but are finally beginning to shake off the injury bug.

After a record-breaking 2018, when Winnipeg made the conference finals for the first time ever, the focus will be more on being ready for those big moments, moments they couldn’t seem to handle last season. And that all starts with Trouba and Morrissey playing bigger roles.