Sens blank Jets in preseason finale

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This article was published 05/10/2023 (732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The necessary evil that is the NHL preseason has ended with a whimper for the Winnipeg Jets.

A 3-0 loss at Canada Life Centre to the Ottawa Senators Thursday night was the final dress rehearsal before the curtain rises on the 2023-24 campaign next week.

No doubt the local squad will be looking for a much better performance once the puck drops for real.

Although this may have resembled a meaningful game on paper, with both teams dressing close to their opening-night rosters, what happened on the ice had more of a “let’s just get this over with” feel.

Claude Giroux, Josh Bailey and Jakob Chychrun all scored for the visitors, while Anton Forsberg stopped all 21 shots he faced for the clean sheet.

Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 30 of 33 pucks.

Winnipeg finishes the six-game exhibition slate with a 2-3-1 record. They won back-to-back outings against the Edmonton Oilers to kick things off, then went winless over the final four.

The action itself may have left plenty to be desired, but there’s still much to talk about out of it. Let’s go to the tape:

1) Ville Heinola goes down: There’s little question the 22-year-old Finn has played himself into consideration for not only a spot on the roster to start the season, but possibly an opening-night assignment as a top six defenceman

Heinola, quite simply, has been that good.

“We’re very, very happy. He’s done everything he can to make this hockey club,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said following the morning skate.

Unfortunately, Heinola’s tale took a painful twist on Thursday as he went down in agony following a collision with Ottawa’s Erik Brannstrom late in the first period. He attempted to crawl off the ice and eventually was helped off by teammates and trainers, putting little to no weight on his left foot.

You could hear the air going out of the crowd.

Whether it’s an ankle, a knee or something else, it sure didn’t look good. Heinola was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game, and his status for the foreseeable future is now a major question mark.

“This isn’t going to be a short-term thing,” Bowness told reporters post-game, adding further information might come on Friday.

Brenden Dillon, who began the game paired with Heinola, said this is the tough part of the sport.

“You just feel brutal for him,” said the veteran blue-liner. “He’s put in the work in the summer. Came in in great shape. We’ve played together a bunch during the preseason and developed that chemistry. It sucks. You go and see him after the first period and, of course, he’s not feeling great. The news isn’t great on it, either. You just wish the best for him and hopefully he comes back stronger.”

2) Mark Scheifele was mad: Like, really mad. It started with an unsportsmanlike conduct minor in the third period, at a time his team was already shorthanded. Considering Scheifele doesn’t swear, you have to wonder what he said to get under the referee’s skin.

Then, later in the final frame, Ottawa’s Parker Kelly took a huge run at Scheifele, grazing him in the process. Winnipeg’s top centre then delivered a hard slash to Kelly’s legs and threw down his gloves in an attempt to fight him.

Not the type of behaviour you usually see from Scheifele, but there’s some history here: Kelly prematurely ended Scheifele’s season in April 2022 by delivering a huge hit that led to a shoulder injury.

The kid leaves his feet a little bit and he’s leading with his arm up and his shoulder up so good for Mark to stick up for himself,” said Bowness.

“Mark was in a vulnerable position, he’s coming off the wall with a guy and all of a sudden this guy’s coming through. You’ve got to look after yourself out there. If you think someone takes advantage of you or tries to hurt you, you stick up for yourself, so good on Mark.”

3) Not a lot of power to the play: It was a parade to the penalty box, but neither team could do much with the man advantage. Winnipeg went 0-for-5 on the night, while Ottawa went 1-for-7 (although another goal was scored just as a Jets minor was expiring).

“It’s tough to look sharp and have good chemistry when you spend the latter half of the game on the penalty kill,” said forward Mason Appleton.

That made for little in the way of five-on-five play and plenty of special teams work.

“The third period was just self-destruction in terms of discipline,” said Bowness.

4) Decisions, decisions: The Jets currently have 28 players left in camp, and they must get down to a maximum of 23 by early next week.

Assuming nobody goes on the injured list — a big assumption now given Heinola’s situation — there would have to be five cuts made.

Goaltender Collin Delia is an obvious one, as he’s the third-stringer behind Hellebuyck and Laurent Brossoit. Likely two forwards and two defencemen will follow.

It may be notable that wingers Parker Ford and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby were the two healthy scratches against the Senators. Nikolaj Ehlers also didn’t play as he deals with lingering neck spasms.

On the blue-line, Logan Stanley was the lone healthy scratch, while Nate Schmidt, Declan Chisholm and Kyle Capobianco are also nursing minor injuries.

It’s not clear if the Jets will make some moves on Friday, or perhaps wait a few more days. Winnipeg will practice on Friday afternoon, then take the weekend off for some team-building activities and Thanksgiving.

5) Speaking of Ehlers: There’s plenty of concern about the status of the flashy winger, who essentially missed the entire preseason. His status for the start of the regular-season remains tentative at best.

“He’s not 100 per cent and until he’s 100 per cent, we’re not going to play him. We can’t afford a setback on this,” said Bowness.

“He’ll keep getting treated, and hopefully by Monday, when we really get ready for the season, he’s 100 per cent and ready to go.”

Ehlers is slated to play on the second line with Cole Perfetti and Nino Niederreiter, but Alex Iafallo has taken his spot, at least for now. Morgan Barron then moved up to play on the third line with Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton, while David Gustafsson, the likely 13th forward for the team, skated on the fourth line with Rasmus Kupari and Vlad Namestnikov.

Only the projected top line of Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi is currently “as is” due to the domino effect of the Ehlers injury.

6) Making moves: Forward Jeffrey Viel was assigned to the Moose on Thursday after clearing waivers. The rugged winger, signed this summer as a free agent, had a nice showing in camp and will likely be one of the first call-ups during the season. Forward Henri Nikkanen was also assigned to the AHL club. He had been nursing an injury through most of camp and didn’t get any preseason games. Now healthy, the 22-year-old Finn will be looking to build on a rookie season with the Moose in which he had five goals and 11 assists in 66 games.

The Jets also re-assigned defenceman Elias Salomonsson back to his club team in Sweden, Skelleftea AIK. The 19-year-old, selected 55th-overall in 2022, is the top blue-line prospect in the system. He got in one preseason game with the Jets, suffered an upper-body injury as a result of a high hit, and was then assigned to the Moose last weekend once he had recovered.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg