Winnipeg Jets Morning Papers

Note:  Reminder that the Illegal Curve Hockey show on TSN 1290 Winnipeg begins at 12 noon today.  Tune into the show as the guys break down the Jets season and take a look around the NHL.

Note II:  The Jets players conducted their exit interviews yesterday which we have posted the audio of and will post video conversations with the individual players throughout the weekend.

Jets news:

Winnipeg Free Press:  Sales pitch to hockey players a lot easier, says Jets GM.  While the Jets players are going to relax for a bit before getting back into the business of hockey the Jets GM has no such luxury as he has plenty of roster spots to fill for next season.

Winnipeg Free Press:  GM enthusiastic about team, future.  I’m a tad incredulous when fans expect the GM to be completely candid as if this is a court room.  For example, regardless of how you feel about the play of Ondrej Pavelec this past season the GM of the team that is currently paying him as their #1 goalie isn’t going to say “Well Ondrej got better this season but he has a long way to go before he is a #1 goalie in this league”.  Just not going to happen.

Winnipeg Free Press:  Playoffs a classroom for Scheifele.  We have seen a lot of progression in his game but the playoffs are an entirely different animal and #55 admitted that he still needs to work on his game to take it to the next level required by the post season. 

Winnipeg Free Press:  Pavelec’s play guarantees his future as Jets No. 1 goalie.  He credited goalie coach Wade Flaherty and his partner for helping to push his level of play.

Winnipeg Free Press:  Jets captain suffering from hernia, Trouba from a broken bone in hand.  Somehow the Ladd has played through the pain since December.  The bigger revelation may be that Trouba somehow played Games 3 and 4 with a broken bone that only allowed him to grip his stick with two fingers.

Winnipeg Free Press:  The Jets are Winnipeg’s tribal totem.  Not a traditional sports article but one worth reading.

Winnipeg Sun:  Real work begins for ]Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.  Success breeds further success or at least the expectation writes Paul.  Plenty to get done this summer.

Winnipeg Sun:  Scheifele admits he has some growing to do.  I suspect fans will be happy to eliminate the #Scheifeledown hashtag from the twitter lexicon.  He matured quite a bit this past season and the idea of more of this in advance of next season has to please fans.

Winnipeg Sun: GM Cheveldayoff keeps faith in Ondrej Pavelec.  As I said above you cannot believe that at this point, the Jets GM would say anything else about his goalie.

Winnipeg Sun:  Jets have big free agency decision looming.  Ken breaks down all the players on the team who may or may not still be wearing Jets colours once free agency begins.

Winnipeg Sun:  Nik Ehlers plans to get heavier, stronger in off-season in order to make Jets.  The Dashing Dane sure seems like a young man with a plan to try and crack the Jets roster.

Winnipeg Sun:  Jets unveil extent of injury battle.  It is quite the laundry list of medical issues for this squad.  It really does seem like they made it to the playoffs purely on adrenaline.

CBC:  Flames ‘salute’ Jets on season well done.  I certainly didn’t take anything negative from the gesture by folks out West.  When a bunch of us were in Calgary for Game 6 in 2004 of the Stanley Cup Final, Flames fans across town and inside the Saddledome told us how much they wanted to see Winnipeg get their team back.

NHL.com:  Jets know there’s work ahead to get deep in playoffs.  Long read from Patrick on all the news from Friday at the MTS Centre.

Sportsnet:  Jets optimistic of future despite playoff loss.  How could you not feel optimistic after you went from 84 points the previous season to 99 points and a playoff spot as opposed to the last in the Central division that most pundits had predicted.

USA Today:  NHL commissioner doesn’t think Winnipeg’s ‘Katy Perry’ chants are sexist.  I don’t want to come across as a misogynist but I really didn’t take it as anything more than a silly chant by the fans.  To be honest I didn’t even realize this had become a ‘thing’ as I was at the MTS Centre all day and we really didn’t get any word of this furor.

Jets Exit Interviews:

Illegal Curve:  GM Kevin Cheveldayoff.  I have both audio and video of the 20+ minute chat.

Illegal Curve:  Coach Paul Maurice.  I have both audio and video of the 20+ minute chat.

Illegal Curve:  Jets Players.  Audio from Wheeler, Ladd, Little, Pavelec, Trouba, Frolik, Tlusty, Scheifele, Myers, Stafford and Ehlers.

Video of the players exit interviews:

Ladd | Wheeler | Scheifele | Trouba