Hutchinson, Mason cleared for full practice as Jets begin road trip

WINNIPEG - For the first time since Jan. 25, the Winnipeg Jets are heading out on the road, and they're bringing a few extra sets of pads along with them.
Both Michael Hutchinson and Steve Mason have been cleared to play, after they've missed six and 16 games due to concussions.
Hutchinson will back up Connor Hellebuyck tomorrow night when the two-game road trip begins in St. Louis against the Blues.
"The concussion protocol is pretty extensive. If you get cleared from that, you're pretty much good to go," said Hutchinson after today's 30-minute practice. "The last few days, getting out with the guys and facing some real shots has been good to get the timing back. You feel like you haven't missed any time at all."

The 27-year-old Hutchinson was activated off the injured reserve list, meaning Eric Comrie was assigned to the Manitoba Moose.
It's the second concussion Hutchinson has suffered in his career, with the first one coming in game action in 2012 while the goaltender was with the AHL's Providence Bruins.
He said this concussion felt similar to that one, although this one came in a morning skate. The team was working on a drill involving point shots with deflections and screens, and Hutchinson recalls exactly how it happened.
"The d-man kind of walked the blue line and shot, and I was looking to the right side of the guy screening," said Hutchinson. "I saw the shot was coming about head high on the left side of his body, so when I went to find the puck on the other side, the player ended up tipping it before I thought he would.
"I just misread it. I wasn't looking at the puck, I was looking at where I thought the puck was going to be. It came through, high to low, so it missed my plastic dangler, and just hit me square on the chin."
While he had a minor headache for a short amount of time immediately following the play, it wasn't until the next day at practice that Hutchinson knew something wasn't right.

"When I started getting shots, my head was spinning and you just try to get through that," said Hutchinson. "You know something is wrong right away once you get these guys who can really fire the puck, if you're off a little bit, you notice it quite a bit."
The AHL All-Star Hutchinson re-joins a Jets line-up entering a stretch of three straight games against Central Division opponents. The first two come on the road in St. Louis and Dallas on Friday and Saturday night.
Head coach Paul Maurice said he's still deciding if Hellebuyck will start in both games, adding there are variables that weigh into the decision.
"His workload, the volume. You go in and have a real busy night or there is a lot of zone time. I might be more careful with that," said Maurice, adding that Mason will likely need more practice time before he sees game action.
"There was a big block of time completely away from it. He for me is in that 7-10 day, get on the ice and get into practicing and get real comfortable."
The Blues and Stars are tied with 72 points, seven back of the Jets for second in the Central Division.
"There's something important in each game. That pressure is important for us to deal with and go through. We're going to play teams that are on the bubble, and good teams on the bubble," Maurice said. "Then we go against Nashville that we're chasing here real hard. It's exciting."

ICE CHIPS
Captain Blake Wheeler tweeted out his congratulations to USA Hockey for its gold medal win in women's hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics this morning.
But it wasn't the only time the captain was on Twitter of late. Last night, he chimed in on the conversation surrounding the most recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
He addressed that tweet on Thursday:
"I think regardless of where people stand, we can probably all agree that what's been going on in the US, the amount of school shootings, we have to find a way to remedy that," said Wheeler.
"It's been going on too long without anyone doing anything to help. It just seems like something that should be fixable. Like I said, it has been great in our room this year. It's the most we've chatted about important things going on in the world. Clearly everyone has different feelings about everything. That's a great thing because it opens up the dialogue. You can figure out why guys feel a certain way, what's important to them, try to put yourself in their shoes. We've obviously chatted about this quite a bit. It's too much.
"It's been going on too long. As an American, I have three kids now. You start to get scared thinking about them going to school. In the United States, it shouldn't be that way."