Manitoba Moose Practice Report

It’s been nearly two weeks since the Moose last hit the ice in Winnipeg for practice, having departed on October 19th for a six-game road trip against Central Division opponents. The trip began in Grand Rapids with a tightly contested 3-2 loss to the Griffins, handing Manitoba just its second regulation defeat of the season. From there, they travelled to Iowa, where they swept the Wild before suffering their first loss of the season to the Wolves, a team they had already defeated three times.

That was followed by their first shutout loss of the campaign against the Admirals in Milwaukee, marking the first time this season they had dropped consecutive games. However, they saved their most memorable performance for last, scoring four shorthanded goals in Rockford, a feat not accomplished in the AHL since 1988.

The Moose finished the road trip with a 3-3-0-0 record, leaving them at 8-4-0-0 overall and among the top teams in the AHL standings. Perhaps most notably, Manitoba boasts the league’s highest-scoring offence, a remarkable turnaround given the team’s struggles to generate goals over the previous two seasons.

We know the Moose lost veteran defencemen Ashton Sautner and Dysin Mayo to injuries during the road trip, so hopefully we’ll get updates on both players. We may also get some clarity on the status of forward Tyson Empey, who was absent from the lineup for the final two games of the road trip. Perhaps we’ll also get a progress report on Jets prospect Kieron Walton, who underwent surgery back on October 15th. The initial recovery timeline was four to six weeks, so it will be interesting to hear how he’s progressing nearly three weeks removed from the procedure.

Working back:

Before practice got underway Jets prospect Garrett Brown was putting in the work as he gets closer to a return. He’s technically still with the Jets. He’ll skate with them once or twice before being cleared and being loaned to the Moose.

Skate news:

Doesn’t appear that there were any recalls up to the Jets as everyone that we expected to be on the ice this morning was there. Still no Ashton Sautner or Dysin Mayo.

Player media:

To follow.

Coach media:

To follow.

Up next:

The Moose are off to Siloam Mission on Tuesday where they will volunteer.