Scheifele takes a risky shot at the Department of Player Safety
In the wake of the shocking sweep at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens, the Winnipeg Jets are still reeling on Wednesday, in shock over the result of their second round series after sweeping the Edmonton Oilers in round one.
One key factor in the Habs' dominant victory over the Jets was the 4-game suspension to Winnipeg's top line center Mark Scheifele for his nasty check on Habs forward Jake Evans in Game 1, which left the 24-year-old concussed and unable to continue on in the series.
During the Jets' season-ending media availability, Scheifele responded to questions about what it was like watching the series unfold the way it did from the press box. Obviously, he was quite upset with the result.
"It's not fun. It's definitely not a great feeling," Scheifele began. You feel pretty helpless when your team's out there battling and you're watching from the stands," he continued.
Scheifele wasn't mincing words on Wednesday, making it very clear that he feels cheated from being able to participate in the remaining 3 games of the second round matchup, pointing the finger at the NHL's Department of Player Safety, admitting to being blindsided by the decision to suspend him for 4 games.
"I thought I was going to be tried to be shut down by Phillip Danault," he said in frustration. "Instead it was the Department of Player Safety that shut me down," he continued, taking a shot at the league's decision to essentially remove him from the series. "I'm going to stop talking before I get fined or something like that."
On the subject of how Scheifele feels that the Jets were treated by the media this season, he clearly didn't appreciate the way this Jets team was being portrayed from the beginning of the season.
"We were written off from day one of the season and we proved people wrong all season long. We go through that slide towards the end of the year and we were being written off again.. we don't get a lot of respect in the grand scheme of things," Scheifele concluded.
The Jets entered the postseason as the #3 seed, despite competing with the Leafs for the top seed in the North Division for a short time in the middle of the season.
Scheifele's 4-game suspension has one game left to serve. As a result, Scheifele will be ineligible to play in the Jets' season opener in 2021-22.
