Jets lose a heartbreaker

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This article was published 18/04/2015 (3851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — After days of indecision, Mathieu Perreault made his first playoff appearance for the Winnipeg Jets Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.

Perreault was in the starting lineup for the Jets in Game 2 of their best-of-seven Pacifici Division series. The Ducks won the opener 4-2.

Perreault was injured in Game 81 of the regular season and missed the opener of the Stanley Cup playoffs here on Thursday. He was on the ice for this morning’s game-day skate at Honda Center, though during the drills, Perreault was just filling in for Andrew Ladd on the line with Bryan Little and Michale Frolik, as Ladd did not take this morning’s skate. Ladd frequently skips the game-day skates.

For that game, Jets coach Paul Maurice also described Perreault today as a “game-time decision,” but Perreault didn’t play.

“He’ll be a game-time decision,” Maurice said today, repeating what he said Thursday. “We’ll see how he feels when he comes back.”

There was a tiny bit of extra information today.

“He felt pretty good coming off the ice today,” Maurice said. “We’ll make a decision then.”

Maurice said Perreault might take tonight’s warm-up, but indicated he has no intention of using the left-winger just on the power play in this game.

For the first time since last week, Perreault spoke to reporters after today’s skate.

“I’m feeling better every day,” he said. “It’s good to be back out there.”

Asked if he could play tonight — against his former team — Perreault waffled, as expected.

“I hope so,” he said. “We’ll see. It felt pretty good this morning. It’s going to be maybe a game-time decision; we’ll see what the coaches are thinking. I’m just trying to get ready to play.”

Perreault confirmed, sort of, that his injury last week was a tweak of the earlier problem that kept him out in February into March.

“A little bit,” he said. “I think that’s what it is. Then it… .got tweaked. The trainer’s been doing a great job and today I felt the best I’ve felt in the past days.

“I don’t know whether I’ll be able to play or not but if I don’t, I’m sure tomorrow will be even better.”

Perreault, who finished the regular season with 18 goals and 41 point sin 62 games, said he didn’t enjoy watching Game 1.

“You get way more nervous watching a game than playing,” he said. “I want to play. I feel like I can help this team in different parts of the game. I want to be one the ice helping the team win, especially when you see the last game we lost. It’s hard sitting on the sideline. You want to be able to help the team win and that’s why we’re working on trying to get me back as soon as possible.”

The Jets come to tonight’s game looking to do some things better. A positive sign, they said, is that their young players and those without previous playoff experience were hardly liabilities on Thursday.

“We’ve done a lot of learning throughout this entire year,” centre Mark Scheifele said. “It’s just a matter of taking it all in, soaking it all in and the challenge, we know it’s going to be tough and a new experience but it’s a matter of accepting the challenge and going with it.”

Scheifele said the Jets are ready with a clean approach to Game 2.

“You don’t win a series in one game,” he said. “That’s the way we look at it. There are still lots of games in the series, lots of games that can go either way. The last game is out of the way and one with and we focus on tonight.”

Maurice said he wants his team to come back fast and physical, just like in Game 1.

“It’s important that the starting point is the finishing point from the game (Thursday),” the coach said. “And that we get back to the pace of the game and the physicality of the game very, very early. And we’re looking forward to that. Quite a few unknowns were gone; based on the way the first game was played, we have a starting point for how this game will be played.

“We have an understanding of the speed and physicality of this game and it’s important that we’re ready for that.”

Maurice was asked about the pressures within this series.

“The pressure changes in the series on home losses,” he said. “You’re supposed to win your games at home and as the first-place team, you’ve got yourself a guaranteed series. But I didn’t feel in that (Game 1)… they have a healthy respect for our work level and our compete level and we have a healthy respect for their talent level and their accomplishments this year.

“It didn’t seem to me on the ice one team looking like it had more pressure. The puck’s going to drop and we’re going to do.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

 

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