Winnipeg Jets Morning Papers

Note: The Jets went into Nashville for their first back-to-back of the season and as well as they played against the Penguins in Pittsburgh the night prior they just didn’t have it going on in this one last night. Other than goalie Eric Comrie who was sensational but he cannot score goals and for the most part neither could the Jets who would suffer their first defeat to a Western Conference opponent by a final score of 4-1. More importantly they lost defenceman Dylan Samberg who blocked a shot by Steven Stamkos in the 2nd period which we found out post-game was a broken foot. He will return to Winnipeg for evaluation. His effort though made us think of this song by Chumbawamba. Coincidentally the team is expected to recall Ville Heinola now that his two game conditioning stint is over. The team is off today in Minnesota.

Note II: The Moose and Wolves did battle yesterday with each club looking for a win to take two of the three games in this mini series which began in Chicago last weekend and concluded on Saturday afternoon. It was appropriately the 25th Anniversary Game (and the uniforms were simply incredible) given the historic rivalry between these two teams. Jets prospect Fabian Wagner made his AHL debut. Manitoba had as good a 1st period as you could have asked but couldn’t solve Chicago goalie Dustin Tokarski. Staring a 2-1 3rd period deficit in the face the home team got goals 52 seconds apart from Brad Lambert (great goal) and Dominic Toninato (GWG) to power their club on it’s way to a 4-2 victory. The team is off today.

Note III: Lots of Jets prospects in action on Saturday night and here is your rundown. In the OHL we start with 2024 6th rounder Kieron Walton who went head-to-head against his best friend 2024 4th Kevin He and came out on top. Walton finished the game with 1G 1A as he continues to rise up the ranks in the OHL while He had one goal which gives him 19 on the season (good enough for 3rd overall in OHL scoring). 2023 1st rounder Colby Barlow was back in Owen Sound for the first time to face his former club where he scored a nice breakaway goal for Oshawa. Over in the WHL it was a 1G 1A night for 2023 1st rounder Brayden Yager who was out there picking corners. Last up was 2024 5th rounder Markus Loponen who had a goal for Victoria.

Jets news:

Winnipeg Free Press: Jets knocked off by Preds, lose Samberg to broken foot. (Paywall). Mike was inside Bridgestone Arena and filed this report from his spot in the pressbox.

Winnipeg Sun: Jets fall to Predators and lose Samberg to injury. That’s a tough blow but no team goes through the season unscathed and the fact is we’ve lauded the Jets depth all season long. We will now find out if that praise was merited.

The Tennessean: Predators’ Andrew Brunette praises Jonathan Marchessault for ‘best game of the year’. Nashville was 19 points back of Winnipeg before puck drop and while the liklihood of them catching top spot is remote if they want to have a sniff of the playoffs they need to start stringing together some wins. They got on the road to that with yesterday’s win. Check out the game recap from a writer that covers the Jets opponent. 

Jets video:

TSN: Corrado discusses Comrie’s ‘very difficult’ task as the Jets’ backup goalie. Eric Comrie got the start for the Jets in the second game of a back-to-back, and only stopped 32 shots in Winnipeg’s 4-1 loss to the Predators Saturday night. TSN’s Hockey analyst Frank Corrado joins SportsCentre to discuss how tough a game like this is for a backup goalie.

Jets audio:

Illegal Curve Hockey Show: Saturday podcast. We reflected on the week that was in Jetsland, reviewed the game between the Jets/Penguins, previewed the Jets/Predators contest, discussed all the latest news about the NHL and AHL clubs of Manitoba. Guests included Jamie Thomas of the Winnipeg Jets and Jessi Pierce of the Bardown Beauties Podcast.