Christmas comes early for Adam Lowry
**Christmas comes early for Adam Lowry**
*By Winnipeg Sun Staff*
Christmas is arriving a little early for Adam Lowry.
The Winnipeg Jets captain is expected to make his long-awaited season debut Tuesday night when the team faces the Los Angeles Kings.
“I feel good and I am looking forward to being back out there, and it finally feels like Christmas morning,” Lowry said after practice Monday at Canada Life Centre.
Originally, the Jets had circled Saturday’s game against the Penguins for his return, but the club decided to hold him back one more game due to timing issues.
“We were looking at some things about maybe getting him into the Pittsburgh game, but nothing lined up practice-wise and us being able to get him into situations,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel. “This is probably the better scenario because of having a good practice on Monday and then playing the game and then having Wednesday off, kind of getting himself reset for the San Jose game. This L.A. game looks like the one.”
The Jets announced in late May that Lowry had undergone successful hip surgery, performed 10 days after the team’s playoff exit in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinal against Dallas.
The 32-year-old said there was no urgency to rush his recovery because the team has performed well without him. Heading into Monday’s action, Winnipeg was tied with Montreal for the NHL’s best winning percentage at .750.
“Watching the team win makes it easier,” Lowry said. “If the team was struggling, going through a losing streak or something like that, you maybe would put a little more pressure to get back out there and kind of get back in the battle, but they have been playing well.”
Lowry, selected by the Jets in the third round of the 2011 NHL Draft, has 121 goals and 152 assists over 775 games. He’s in the final year of his five-year contract signed in April 2021.
“Lowry is a great player,” said winger Nino Niederreiter. “He is very competitive, and he is great to have in the locker room and on the ice. Everybody’s looking forward to having him back.”
Lowry skated with Niederreiter and Tanner Pearson before the club departed for its 13-day, six-game road trip through the Pacific and Mountain time zones.
“I’m looking forward to being back out there, competing with the guys,” Lowry said. “You never want to start the season not playing, but the group’s done a great job, and they’ve been playing great. Hopefully, go in and don’t disrupt things too much.”
Following Tuesday’s game in Los Angeles, the Jets will face San Jose, Anaheim, Vancouver, Seattle, and Calgary.
Arniel said he expects his captain to bring renewed energy to the lineup.
“It’s been hard for him because he’s not playing in the games and whether it was us having meetings about how we were playing, different things that were going on in the dressing room on the road,” Arniel said. “There’s lots of times when he wasn’t on the road with us. He made a couple of trips, but at the end of the day, you’re in his shoes — he’s the captain, he’s vocal, he’s the leader — and you’re not able to do that for two months, so now I’m sure he’s got a lot of stuff built up in him.”
Lowry, however, said he hopes to ease back in quietly and let the team’s strong rhythm continue.
“The speed of the game — guys come up on you quicker, you can’t admire any passes or there is a chance you are going to get hit right away,” he said. “Then it is just getting the cardio back. You can work as hard as you want, on the ice, off the ice, there is nothing that quite replicates game shape. It might take me a couple of games to get back up and feeling good.”
**Description:**
Jets captain Adam Lowry says it feels like Christmas morning as he returns from hip surgery to make his season debut. Read more.
