Note: The Jets held a final day of practice on Tuesday morning and are officially on Christmas break until Sunday. It was somewhat informative as interim head coach Dave Lowry provided some health updates.
Note II: When the province of Manitoba announced their new health restrictions on Friday, which included a decrease to 50% capacity for Jets games, the local NHL club had to come up with a plan for their season ticket holders. Read the plan right here.
Note III: The Moose got back a pair of players on Tuesday with the reassignment of CJ Suess and Kristian Reichel to the AHL club.
Jets news:
Winnipeg Sun: Jets’ Hellebuyck views COVID pause as ‘overkill’. Lots of chatter after the chat with the Jets top netminder on the topic that has caused his league to hit the pause button and begin their Christmas break a wee bit earlier than expected.
Photo Credit: Alexander James (Illegal Curve)
Winnipeg Free Press: Jets’ Olympic dreams dashed by pandemic. (Paywall). It will be a shame not to see NHL players doing battle for their respective nations but it also doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to take the risk. My two cents: If you were gonna sequester players anyways just have them play this Olympic tournament somewhere else. Counter to that is this isn’t really feasible anymore given that the three weeks will likely be needed to make up games missed around the NHL.
Winnipeg Free Press: COVID creates uncertainty for Jets, NHL. (Paywall). It is only academic at this point but you do wonder what kind of benefit the team could have had from some more practice time this week or even the chance to maintain the momentum they potentially started on Sunday with a game. Instead they will have to hope the rest does their bodies good and they can return to Winnipeg recharged and ready to get back into the central division fight.
Jets video:
TSN: Button: Hellebuyck’s comments were overkill, and reflect a tone deafness that looks bad. TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button and TSN Hockey analyst Jamie McLennan join That’s Hockey to share their thoughts on Connor Hellebuyck’s comments on Tuesday where he called the NHL pausing the season due to COVID-19 ‘overkill’.
Sportsnet: Why Kyle Connor sees Dave Lowry as a ‘coach you want to play for’. Jets forward Kyle Connor talks about the first couple practices and games under new interim head coach Dave Lowry, and why he sees him as a coach that you want to play for.
Team Canada: Jets prospect Cole Perfetti to draw on last year’s experience for Team Canada at World Juniors. The Jets and Moose prospect spoke about his plans on using his experience in the pro ranks as well as from last year’s tournament while being an alternate captain for Canada.
Jets audio:
TSN 1260 Edmonton: The Lowdown with Lowetide. Murat Ates of The Athletic was on to chat about the local NHL club.
TSN 1050 Toronto: Leafs Lunch. TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button on NHL pausing the season, Hellebuyck’s comments and if the taxi squad could return.
