Rookie centre Copp eager to prove himself

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This article was published 25/09/2015 (3693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s never a shortage of interesting items going on in an NHL pre-season game and tonight’s will no exception for the Winnipeg Jets.

The Edmonton Oilers are here for a 7 p.m. start at the MTS Centre.

The Jets will have a potential third line for the regular season tonight — centre Adam Lowry with wingers Mathieu Perreault and Nikolaj Ehlers — and will dress rookie centre Andrew Copp for the third straight time this pre-season.

When he hits the ice tonight, Copp will be the only player to have played the first three exhibition games for the Jets.

“It’s experience,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said this morning. “Centre ice is a unique position, moreso than the other two forward positions. That’s the place you have to make a lot of reads. The wingers don’t have to many nearly as many reads during the course of a game.

“They’re in the on the forecheck a little earlier, they find their D in their own end. The centre has switch-offs, different alignment on faceoffs and we’ll try to get him as many reps as we can.”

Just another day’s work said Copp, the 21-year-old who came out of Michigan last spring.

“Just trying to prove myself, that I belong here,” Copp said this morning. “I’m just trying to keep getting better every day. That’s kind of been my mantra since Penticton.”

Copp took the opportunity to play again as an encouraging sign. He’s among the young players battling to earn one of the open forward jobs with the team.

“He (Maurice) wants to take a better look and, I don’t know, I just try not to get get in someone else’s head or try to think things that can distract me from what I need to do or focus on,” Copp said. “It’s obviously encouraging that I can keep playing so I have to go out there and prove myself, keep getting better.”

Playing Tuesday, Wednesday and again tonight is not too much to ask physically, Coipp said.

“I think it’s what you train for all summer long,” he said. “We’ll have way tougher stretches than this down the line. The coach is always talking about overcoming adversity. That’s been a mantra of his since he got here. So manybe a little bit of adversity now will go a long way down the road when we play back-to-backs or late in the season when you starting getting ground down a little.”

Jets captain Andrew Ladd and his usual centre, Bryan Little, were both on the ice for today’s skate.

They won’t play tonight, but should get into action soon, Maurice said.

Ladd said his minor setback at training camp was unrelated to his summer sports-hernia surgery.

“We should be good to go after today,” he said. “It was just one of those little, nagging things that you might as well wait to clear up before you keep pushing.

“You might as well take the time and make sure it’s right.”

After the normal game-day skate today, players with small health issues held a later skate, including Dustin Byfuglien, Tyler Myers, Paul Postma and Anthony Peluso.

Defencemen Jan Kostalek and Andrew MacWilliam, who have also missed time with small injuries, did participate in this morning’s practice and could be options when the Jets play in Minnesota on Sunday afternoon.

Winnipeg is 0-1-1 in pre-season so far.

Tonight’s game will include a three-on-three overtime, no matter what the score at the end of 60 minutes.

Here’s what tonight’s Jets lineup could look like:

Stafford-Scheifele-Wheeler

Perreault-Lowry-Ehlers

Thorburn-Copp-Petan

Lipon-De Leo-Lemieux

Stuart-Trouba

Chiarot-Enstrom

Morrissey-Harrison

Pavelec

Hellebuyck

 

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca