It was another Jets game day as the playing group returned home to Winnipeg after last night’s 2-1 win over the Oilers in Edmonton and they became the non-playing group. While technically tonight would be a back-to-back all the players involved were fresh from the non-playing group on Sunday.
As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press they lined up during morning skate as follows:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Barron-Kupari-Namestnikov
Viel-Gustafsson-Ford
Torgersson-Lucius-Reichel
Morrissey-Salomonsson
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Capobianco
Sautner-Stewart
Brossoit
DiVincentiis
Following skate Jets bench boss Rick Bowness indicated that Colby Barlow was “Sick. Ya he’s having a tough time. He’s very congested. It’s unfortunate but he’s still not feeling very well.” You wonder if he would have been part of the cuts as it is expected that the guys that will be cut are the guys being sent back to their junior teams. Maybe the team keeps him to get him a game on Wednesday night before returning him to Owen Sound.
With respect to Nikolaj Ehlers he indicated “Nik’s skating today. Wednesday he’ll skate with the big groups. We were hoping to have him in these games. Obviously that’s not going to happen. We’ll have to give him a couple of days to get his legs back underneath him.”
Puck drop got underway at 7 pm here in Winnipeg and the party began with the top line of Kyle Connor, Gabe Vilardi and Mark Scheifele finding the back of the net to make it 1-0 after 20 minutes of play.
There wasn’t any scoring in the middle frame before the Jets erupted for four goals in the 3rd period including tally’s by Neal Pionk, David Gustafsson, Morgan Barron and Kyle Cabobianco to see Winnipeg cruise to a 5-0 win over Edmonton.
It was a nice return for Laurent Brossoit after being gone the last three seasons as he picks up as 26-save shutout.
Photo Credit: Alexander James (Illegal Curve)
Probably worth noting the Jets had a fairly veteran squad while the Oilers brought a fairly youthful one.
The Jets are off tomorrow but as mentioned above it is expected the team will make their first round of cuts.
