Perreault scratched from game to welcome baby

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This article was published 26/09/2017 (2908 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Perreault household has had a visit from the stork and not the injury bug.

Winnipeg Jets centre Mathieu Perreault was scheduled to play Monday night against the Calgary Flames, but was scratched from the lineup before the pre-season game at Bell MTS Place.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice did some stickhandling Tuesday morning, providing an explanation for the turn of events without actually delving too deeply into Perreault’s personal life.

“Matty Perreault had an expansionary issue with his family and it’s all very, very positive. But I don’t get to announce that, right? So, we can pretend I didn’t say anything,” he said.

The Jets are 1-3-1 in the pre-season, with two more games to go before the start of the 2017-18 regular season.

Adam Lowry left in the second period of a game the home side won 5-2 with an undisclosed injury. Maurice said the big third-line centre won’t dress tonight against the visiting Ottawa Senators, but should be good to go when the Jets kick off the season at home exactly a week later against last year’s NHL rookie-of-the-year Auston Matthews and the rest of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“We wouldn’t think (Lowry) is gonna have a problem starting the season,” Maurice said. “We’re being very cautious here. Most of these are either groin, hip flexors or your quad strains — tightness that we can’t loosen up, which is what you’d expect based on the way we’ve run camp. It’s been a grind for them.”

A pair of nicked-up veterans, blue-liner Tyler Myers and centre Bryan Little, returned to practice Tuesday morning at Bell MTS Iceplex, while forward Joel Armia rested for another day.

“We don’t have anybody that right now is a concern for opening night,” Maurice said.

Early in the third period, Flames forward Marek Hrivik took a high hit from Jacob Trouba and the Winnipeg rear-guard was slapped with a match penalty for an illegal hit to the head and five-minute major for fighting with forward Garnet Hathaway.

There was no word from the NHL on any additional punishment on Tuesday.

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Maurice took a shine to the play of Brandon Tanev not long after the fleet-footed forward finished his university career at Providence College and signed with the Jets near the tail end of the 2015-16 NHL season.

Tanev earned a starting job with the Jets last fall and played 51 games in the NHL, but also had to handle the impact of a demotion to the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League. His Jets numbers included just a pair of goals — both scored in the same game in mid-November against the Detroit Red Wings — and two assists.

Locked in a battle for fourth-line work this training camp, Tanev was a major contributor on a penalty-killing unit Monday that extinguished all five of the Flames’ power-play opportunities.

Flashy will never be a descriptor for the Toronto product and he’ll never play major minutes, but it’s difficult to knock his tenacity as a checker. His place in the NHL as a role player — past, present and future — is clearly defined, and he’s just fine with that.

“In this league it’s all about roles, about giving what you have to give, especially as a bottom-six player. You gotta be willing to do the dirty work and that’s a role I like to do,” Tanev said. “I’m trying to establish myself as someone like that. It’s very important.”

Maurice said Tanev identified his strengths early on as a pro and hasn’t strayed from the belief he can contribute in ways far different than those of a star scorer such as Patrik Laine or top defender such as Jacob Trouba.

“There is that understanding when you come to pro hockey that you have to be really good at something,” Maurice said. “You have to have something that you do in your role that’s better than other players. (Monday) was the best, by far, of his pre-season. He was really strong (and) he used that speed.

“We have to develop and we have to have penalty killers in our lineup, just as much as you have a power-play guy in your lineup. So, he made a good case for himself in last night’s game.”

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Early on, the possibility of raw rookie without a single NHL game on his resumé arriving in training camp and cracking the Jets’ 23-man roster to begin the regular season seemed a long shot at best.

Maurice even said as much.

On Tuesday, however, Maurice played coy when asked if there’s a young player whose performance might make the bench boss eat his words.

“Possibly… that’s all you’re getting,” he said. “You can get the list out.”

Immediately, the name Tucker Poolman was thrown at the savvy, 20-year NHL coach, who begins the ’17-18 campaign with 1,365 games under his belt split between Hartford/Carolina, Toronto and Winnipeg.

Poolman, a right-shooter fresh out of college, has been a bright spot this fall as he battles for the seventh job on the Jets’ defence.

“He’s been pretty good, has played well. We’re going to try him on his off side (against the Senators), take a look at that, something he’s done over the course of his career. But he’s had a very strong camp,” Maurice said.

“I would have (had) that line of thinking all summer. I didn’t think we would have a rookie come in, based on what I saw on the board — a pure rookie who hadn’t played in the NHL. But we’ve got some guys that have really good camps and now they’re in that mix.”

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Winnipeg is expected to start goalie Connor Hellebuyck against the Senators tonight.

Game time at the downtown rink is 7 p.m. (TSN 3 TV, TSN1290 Radio).

Fans might get to see talented forwards and best buddies Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers create some magic on the same line again.

On Monday, Laine showed off his sharpshooting skills with a pair of goals, but also turned playmaker with three assists. His best dish of the puck didn’t produce a goal, but was highlight-reel stuff.

He sent a blue line-to-blue line saucer pass to Ehlers that dropped right on the stick blade of the Danish-born speedster, who cradled the puck on the fly and broke in alone, only to be stopped by goalie Eddie Lack.

Indeed, the pair has chemistry.

“Of all the forwards, Nik Ehlers’ growth right now is the one that I’m most pleased with,” Maurice said.

“That line (centre Bryan Little with Ehlers and Laine) is an option now. If you’d asked me in July, I’d have been nervous about it… but Nik Ehlers has become a pro, so it becomes a viable option.

“When (Laine) gets over to his natural (right) side, you saw that pass. You really needed to sit from ice level, because there was no way he should have been able to land that puck and there was no way Nikki should have been able to get to it. It was almost like a hole-in-one that didn’t touch the rim. It was perfection.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @WFPJasonBell