It was a busy Friday morning which began with the non-playing group, made up primarily of veterans, hitting the ice in Winnipeg as they continue to prepare for the regular season. There were also the guys who were IR skating which included Mason Appleton, Nate Schmidt, Colby Barlow (illness) and Henri Nikkanen.
Two players who were part of the IR skate on Thursday but skated today with the big group today were Cole Perfetti and Nikolaj Ehlers, who ditched the yellow non-contact jersey he wore yesterday for a regular one.
The playing group was made up of players looking to “make an impression” with cuts coming (as soon as tomorrow) and with the expectations that the final two exhibition games will be played by the veterans/players expected to be on Jets roster to start the season.
We had a chance to chat with Jets 2023 1st rounder Colby Barlow as he continues to recover from illness and get back to skating here in Winnipeg. We know he won’t get a pre-season game but we did get a chance to talk to him about the three-year ELC he signed with Winnipeg, what he’s learned at training camp and more. (Please note the audio malfunctioned so we had to blend our video with someone’s phone audio which is clearly not the same quality).
Before the team took off for Ottawa we also had a chance to catch up with Jets head coach Rick Bowness.
He provided some health updates, his system being adopted, tweaks, changing the way the team pressures, Gabe Vilardi and more. With respect to the health news he essentially said the hope is that Mason Appleton, Nate Schmidt, Cole Perfetti and Nikolaj Ehlers will be ready to go for Monday’s game in Calgary against the Flames.
When the puck dropped in Ottawa not much happened in the opening frame except for 2022 2nd rounder Elias Salomonsson getting taken out hard into the boards and being forced to leave the game.
Angus Crookshank gets 2 minutes for roughing, for this hit.
Elias Salomonsson seems to have headed down the tunnel shortly after. #Sens #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/9TSvObdS6c
— Pesky Sickos (@PeskySickos) September 29, 2023
It would take until the middle frame before Jansen Harkins got his second of the pre-season to open the scoring to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead off a nice forecheck by he and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby. The Sens would tie it shortly thereafter before veteran Claude Giroux would score what would turn into the game-winning goal just before the 2nd period concluded.
Despite having some grade A chance Winnipeg couldn’t get the game tying goal and Ottawa would take it 3-1 with an empty netter for the dagger. The Jets are now 2-1-1 in the pre-season.
The first group doesn’t hit the ice until 12 noon on Saturday with the second group on an hour and a half later but there are likely to be some cuts tomorrow so be sure to stay tuned for that if it happens.
As well remember to join us at 9 AM for the Illegal Curve Hockey Show. We will be joined by Sean Reynolds of Sportsnet and Craig Button of TSN.
