The Jets lost Gabriel Vilardi back on February 29th in the game against the Stars in Dallas. He was back skating on the top line today with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor which was a pretty good indication he was ready to return after missing the last 15 games for Winnipeg.
Photo Credit: Luke Perrett (Illegal Curve)
Another sign that he was ready to return was the fact he was available for media after skate.
He was asked about what happened in Dallas and he told us that he had told Rick Bowness during the 2nd intermission of the game against the Stars that:
“There’s no point to my being out there. I wasn’t giving the guys 100%. I couldn’t. So I asked him, I said, ‘You want me to come out and he said yeah come out, sit on the bench’ and that was that.”
He thereafter returned to Winnipeg as he dealt with the injury and they also discovered his having an enlarged spleen. Asked if he got an answer on the source of the spleen issue he advised “Couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t get an answer on that and I don’t think I ever will in terms of why it got so big.”
It may take him a bit of time getting back up to speed as he was off the ice/gym for two/two and a half weeks where he was “not doing much”. But said this past week he’s been able to push himself.
He did confirm that he will be playing tomorrow against the Senators.
Here was his media availability following practice today:
