Jets taking young team to Alberta

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This article was published 29/09/2014 (4012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE casting calls are about to come to an end for the Winnipeg Jets.

As training camp crunch time nears, the Jets will give a lot of their young prospects another chance to impress against the Edmonton Oilers tonight.

The Jets will take a “really young” team to Edmonton for their fourth exhibition game, head coach Paul Maurice said Sunday. That starts in goal, where Michael Hutchinson will get the start — though the team will look to get some playing time for tryout Danny Taylor.

Although, Maurice clarified, when he said “young” he didn’t just mean in terms of chronological youth.

“In terms of NHL experience, it’ll be a little light on that,” Maurice said. “But we’ll have enough workers in the lineup that we should be fine.”

Dustin Byfuglien and Paul Postma didn’t skate in Sunday morning’s practice and are still day-to-day, Maurice said. Evander Kane is expected to be ready to play today, though they haven’t decided if he’ll be on the roster in Edmonton. Forward Eric O’Dell is “coming along” with an undisclosed injury.

The Jets are still working with two groups in camp, though they will likely look to get that down to a single group by Wednesday.

FRONT-ROW REVIEW: Jets captain Andrew Ladd worked on a line with Bryan Little and first-round draft pick Nik Ehlers in Saturday’s pre-season loss to Minnesota. And like many who have watched the 18-year-old Dane, Ladd came away impressed.

“He’s a talented kid,” said Ladd. “Obviously his speed and his handling of the puck… he’s got great hands on him and is able to make a lot of plays in traffic. That first goal, he was on the train tracks in the middle and didn’t think he was going to make it out of there, but he’s pretty slippery and was able to find his way through and make plays off that.

“Like any kid coming out of junior it takes time to learn the pro game, the little things you need to do on a nightly basis. I think he’s used to being able to turn it on and do it by himself. You realize it’s a little easier to use the players around you and then jump into holes. But that all comes with experience and playing games.”

S-C-H-E-I-F-E-F-E?: No, your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you when the Jets played Minnesota Saturday night — Mark Scheifele’s jersey really did read Scheifefe.

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Though some wondered if the jumble was a prank, a Jets staffer said it appeared to be a simple mistake — and one that sailed right past many fans and players alike. On TSN, play-by-play voice Dennis Beyak didn’t notice until the game was over. Defenceman Keaton Ellerby didn’t spot the gaffe either: He learned about it when Scheifele showed his teammates a picture on the flight back to Winnipeg that night.

As for defenceman Adam Pardy, he thought something looked a little… off.

“Before the game started, I remember looking at it and I’m like, ‘Is that right?’ ” Pardy said Sunday, laughing. “It’s such a complicated spelling anyway, you never really clue into it. There was a lot going on. I remember looking at him thinking, ‘that doesn’t look right,’ but it was pretty funny afterward when we saw the nametag.

“I think the referee — that’s when we noticed it — the referee tried to say his name, and then we all started laughing. It was pretty funny.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.