Like The Grinch stealing Christmas gifts from Whoville, an injury has taken Dustin Byfuglien from the Winnipeg Jets until after the holiday season.

However, head coach Paul Maurice is confident he has the corps to weather opponents’ offensive onslaughts until the big d-man’s return.

“We’ve had a pair in Kulikov and Myers and they come off the bench maybe in the five-six, but clearly they don’t view themselves as that and neither do we,” Maurice said after Monday’s skate.

“Ben (Chiarot) has been in the game for a while now, he’s got some experience. We’ve got two young defensemen; we don’t talk about Morrissey as a young man and Tucker (Poolman) has some American League games under his belt and he’s played some games in the NHL so he’s ready to go.”

Prior to the Jets’ Monday evening matchup with the Vancouver Canucks, Maurice confirmed the injury Byfuglien suffered in Saturday’s overtime loss to Tampa Bay would sideline him week-to-week. He joins Toby Enstrom - who’s been out since late November - in the infirmary.

Tucker Poolman will play in Byfuglien’s stead. The 24-year-old East Grand Forks product was called up after Enstrom went down, but had been relegated to the press-box since rejoining the team. Overall, he’s played 10 games on the year: seven with the Moose and three with the Jets.

“Somebody gets nicked up and you get your chance,” Maurice said of Poolman’s first opportunity to play in nearly a month.

And Poolman says he’s ready despite not getting into game action recently.

“You always want to be out there playing,” he said. “It’s just going to be a little faster paced than usual. You just got to try to slow it down and make simple plays.”

Byfuglien’s injury has forced Maurice to make some adjustments. Jacob Trouba - whose offensive upside hasn’t shone as often this year as he’s played a shutdown role with Josh Morrisey – will get time on the top power play unit.

“I like that he’s really excited about it,” Maurice said, explaining that Tyler Myers’ hot power play presence throughout November prevented Trouba from getting a shot.

“Now he gets a chance with what a lot of people consider the ‘A-unit’, and it’s something he’s always wanted.”

Speaking of chances, someone who will be looking for a fresh chance to impress Maurice with increased minutes is Ben Chiarot. The 26-year-old blueliner played only 9:47 against Tampa Bay on Saturday and found himself glued to the bench for the latter part of the game.

“I didn’t like the way the goal went in that got called back on goalie interference,” Maurice said. “I though Ben could have done a little better job with that,” he continued, adding he’s been happy with Chiarot’s 12 games in general.

The Byfuglien-less Jets will look to snap their three-game losing streak tonight at Bell MTS Place.

Puck drop is at 7 tonight. TSN Radio 1290’s coverage begins at 6 with the MBT Pregame Show, hosted by Kevin Olszewski and Josh Green. Your home of the Winnipeg Jets has every game live, all season long.