MAILBAG CALLOUT
The Jets monthly mailbag is open, so please send your questions to Mike and Ken by replying to this email or reaching out via email or social media.
We’ll have your answers next week.
FROM THE PRESS BOX
MIKE SAYS: I was a little surprised to not see any additional callups from the Manitoba Moose ahead of tonight’s game.
However, given that the AHL team just played last night in Chicago and now has back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday in Iowa — with fairly critical impact on their playoff seeding — I suppose standing pat made some sense.
Manitoba is still jockeying between third and fourth place in their division, which would be the difference between having to start the playoffs with a best-of-three qualification round.
It was nice to see Ville Heinola finally get back in a game on Tuesday night, and he nearly found the back of the net as well.
I suspect tonight will be his final game as a member of the Jets — he’s a pending unrestricted free agent this summer — and it’s too bad things didn’t work out better for the 20th-overall pick from 2019.
Heinola was rather candid as he spoke with us this morning about this season in particular, where he’s been a perpetual healthy scratch with the Jets.
Winnipeg Jets defenceman Ville Heinola (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files)
“It’s been mentally, probably the hardest year. I struggle a lot, especially mentally,” he said.
“But getting to play Tuesday, that’s always a huge help, and just trying to enjoy the game. And that’s what I love to do. So it’s always fun to play, but yeah, it’s been super, super, super hard.”
Heinola revealed he hired a personal mental-health coach recently to help him through these tough times.
“That was a huge, huge help at the time, just to be able to talk somebody,” he said. “He’s actually an old player, too. So he kind of knows the feeling and knows how to kind of approach the things.
“But yeah, it’s just for me, I just tried to talk my family, my mental coach, everybody who I get just to not stay alone and just lay in bed and think about it. I think that’s the worst you can do. But yeah, when you go low mental it’s hard to bounce back.”
I find it interesting that Comrie, not Hellebuyck, gets this final game. The Jets worked their No. 1 guy hard down the stretch, no question, but I figured he’d get one last hurrah here on home ice.
Instead, that assignment goes to Comrie, a pending UFA who I suspect will sign a new contract and return next fall.
KEN SAYS: The Jets have reached the end of the line in a season that will undoubtedly go down as a drastic disappointment.
Going from a Presidents’ Trophy winner with Stanley Cup aspirations to missing out on the post-season party entirely wasn’t something anyone around these parts had on their respective bingo cards.
But before the thorough evaluation begins in earnest, the Jets will push through this final game of the campaign.
It’s been clear the Jets emotional level has been down during this three-game losing skid, especially after officially being eliminated, but there were some signs of life in the third period against the Mammoth Tuesday.
Not much that occurs this evening will have an impact on what the Jets look like next season, but it’s important to remember there will be a few players on the ice that will be wearing that uniform for the last time.
Whether it’s a pending free agent or someone who could be on the move in a trade, you can bet there are several players with plenty to play for and want to leave an impression — either with their current team or a future employer.
On the flip side, for a group of youngsters — I’m looking at you, Brad Lambert, Isak Rosen, Brayden Yager and Nikita Chibrikov — it’s an opportunity to leave one more impression with the coaching staff or management team that you plan to be part of the solution for an organization that plans on being back in the playoffs next spring.
When it comes to the Sharks, any opportunity to see Macklin Celebrini in person is something viewers and fans of the game should enjoy. Celebrini is having an outstanding season and honestly, he’s forcing me to reconsider my general rule that I don’t provide Hart Trophy votes for players who don’t force their respective teams into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Celebrini is the biggest reason the Sharks were in the playoff chase as long as they were and while points aren’t the only important thing to consider when voting for this award, it’s impossible to ignore that he’s 55 points ahead of frequent linemate Will Smith, who is second in team scoring with 57 in 67 games.
With Celebrini coming into the contest with 112 points in 81 games, it’s noteworthy when the only guys in the entire league with more than that are Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon, all of whom are garnering Hart Trophy consideration for good reason.
It’s unfortunate that Winnipegger Ryan Reaves is done for the season with a hand injury, and count me among those who believe he will get one more contract this summer as he tries to reach the 1,000 NHL game mark and earn a silver stick.
PROJECTED LINES
WINNIPEG JETS
FORWARDS:
- Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
- Perfetti-Lowry-Niederreiter
- Rosen-Toews-Lambert
- Koepke-Yager-Chibrikov
DEFENCE:
- Morrissey-DeMelo
- Samberg-Miller
- Fleury-Heinola
GOAL:
HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Bryson, F Nyquist
INJURED: D Salomonsson (concussion protocol), D Pionk (undisclosed), C Barron (lower body), F Namestnikov (lower body), F Iafallo (undisclosed)
SAN JOSE SHARKS
FORWARDS:
- Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith
- Graf-Misa-Toffoli
- Eklund-Wennberg-Sherwood
- Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Gaudette
DEFENCE:
- Mukhamadulin-Orlov
- Dickinson-Ferraro
- Cagnoni-Desharnais
GOAL:
HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Klingberg, D Leddy, F Dellandrea, F Regenda, F Kurashev
INJURED: G Price (knee), C Couture (groin), RW Reaves (hand)
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
Jets captain Adam Lowry, reflecting on what went wrong over the course of this 82-game season:
“I think looking at that 11-game losing streak and that stretch (of 30 games) where we had six or seven wins, that really put us in a hole and put us in the position that we’re in. That’s why you talk about consistency, that’s why you talk about performance from the start of the year to the end of the year and how critical points are regardless of the time of the year. It’s frustrating.
“I think from a team standpoint, we know we could have performed a lot better. From an individual standpoint, I know my season hasn’t gone the way I liked. I feel like if I could have contributed a little more offensively, maybe two, three, four more wins and that’s the difference between making the playoffs and missing it.”
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
Mike has an early story on how tough things have been mentally on defenceman Ville Heinola, whose tenure with the Jets is likely coming to an end.
Ken has game coverage of Jets vs. Sharks.
You can find the stories online tonight and in Friday’s print edition of the newspaper.
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