Raising their voices

Jets salvage point in Chicago

CHICAGO — Ever have one of those days where you should have just stayed in bed? That pretty much sums up how Thursday went for the Winnipeg Jets here in the Windy City.

It began with the bad news that top defenceman Josh Morrissey’s wrist issue is more serious than feared, and he likely won’t be back in the lineup any time soon. Then, veteran forward Vlad Namestnikov, coming off his best game of the young season, crashed into the boards at the end of morning skate, suffering an upper-body injury that sent him to the sidelines.

Off to the game itself, which began with Dylan DeMelo hitting the post on the first shift, a parade of Winnipeg penalties helping the home team build a healthy early lead and, last and certainly least, an eventual 4-3 overtime loss at United Center.

It actually could have been worse.

Disgraced ex-dean landed job at German university after fleeing Winnipeg

Before he was arrested in a posh Paris suburb, the disgraced dean of Manitoba’s only law school — who fled the country following a 2020 expense scandal — kept a low profile at a German university.

Author Emily St. John Mandel’s Exit Party a story of hope in dark times

If Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel Exit Party is in any way prophetic, Americans should be worried.

The B.C.-born, New York-based author’s bestselling fourth novel, 2014’s Station Eleven, chronicled a performing troupe in a post-pandemic world. The novel experienced a second wave of popularity when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and when HBO’s Station Eleven miniseries premièred in late 2021.

Mandel launches Exit Party, her seventh novel, at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location tonight, where she’ll be joined in conversation by Winnipeg novelist Joan Thomas.

Published in September by HarperCollins, Exit Party sees Mandel once again working in the near future, in this case in a novel that features two timelines — one (dubbed the A-side in the novel) where the U.S. has fractured into a number of small countries following a civil war, and another (the B-side) where a singular, autocratic surveillance state has tightened its grip over its citizens.

Manitoba Hydro to replace dozens of electrical substations over 20 years

Manitoba Hydro is promising fewer power outages in Winnipeg once it replaces or converts 41 electrical substations in a project the utility says will last up to 20 years and cost as much as $1.2 billion.

New twist in Hellebuyck saga, suspension ends Friday

Connor Hellebuyck has played the reverse Uno card.

What we don’t know is if he has any intention of coming back to friendly Manitoba or if this is simply the latest attempt to put the Winnipeg Jets feet to the flames in an effort to move him to an American market.

Prior to puck drop on Saturday afternoon, when the Jets were getting set to host the Carolina Hurricanes, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that the three-time Vezina Trophy winner and one-time Hart Trophy winner informed the organization he wanted to return on Oct. 2 and that his holdout has now shifted to a team-imposed suspension that can officially come to an end Friday.

The Jets were able to extend his suspension (for failing to report to training camp) because of a clause in the collective bargaining agreement, Article 15.13, subsection (c)(v), which reads: “If a player who has not received permission to be absent from training camp returns to the club, he shall be subject to a disciplinary suspension of reasonable length.”

Violence directed at Winnipeg School Division support staff surges, union reports

Kicking, biting and other types of student aggression toward educational assistants in Winnipeg has surged 118 per cent since 2022-23.