Ehlers still the fastest Jet on ice

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This article was published 26/11/2019 (2115 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s a prevailing sentiment that Nikolaj Ehlers might be the only one to break Nikolaj Ehlers’ record as the Winnipeg Jets’ fastest skater for the foreseeable future.

Wearing his blue No. 27 home jersey, the Jets’ human bullet dashed to his second-straight title in the event at the NHL club’s skills competition on Monday night at Bell MTS Place.

Ehlers skated a lap in 13.03 seconds, shattering the team record (13.25) he set last season. He’s won the event three of the past four years, faltering two years ago when he cut his last turn too sharply and clipped the net.

“We have some pretty fast guys on the team, but it feels good to take it home again,” Ehlers said. “We’re definitely having fun out there. I’m happy that we get to do this because you can see all the kids that come out and watch, it’s a lot of fun for them as well. It means a lot to them, and for us we come out there and we play around a little bit, too. There’s not much time you get to do that during the season.”

The Jets were divided into two squads — Team White and Team Blue — for the annual competition, which attracted 10,072 fans to the downtown rink. Defenceman Josh Morrissey, injured in the second period of the team’s 4-3 triumph over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets, was a full participant in the skills competition. Nathan Beaulieu, also injured Saturday, wasn’t on the ice, while captain Blake Wheeler didn’t suit up but appeared to be fine and enjoying the evening with his family.

Ehlers, Winnipeg’s second-line left-winger, beat his Team Blue teammate Jack Roslovic (13.81), as well as Kyle Connor (13.49) and Michael Spacek (13.59), both from Team White.

Ehlers admitted tearing around the net comes with a degree of risk.

“We have talked about it and it can be a little scary at times. But in the stuff that we do out here, besides the shootout, if you don’t go pretty hard it’s not going to be fun for us and it’s not going to be fun for the people that come and watch,” he said. “We’re going as fast as we can, and you’re also a little careful.”

Roslovic had a tough start, through no fault of his own, as the guys in white gave him a water-bottle shower. Ehlers vowed he played no role in the conspiracy.

“He was on my team. Why would I do that?” he said, smiling. “We want to win the trophy, so definitely not.”

By the time the fun was over, Team White — with Connor, Spacek, Anthony Bitetto, Andrew Copp, Patrik Laine, Joona Luoto, Connor Hellebuyck, Neal Pionk, Tucker Poolman, Mark Scheifele and under-18 AAA goaltender Nikulas Jerris of the Winnipeg Bruins — actually carted off the coveted skills competition chalice.

But a couple of members of the Blue squad earned huge cheers from the crowd for winning events, including Mathieu Perreault, who was dialed in when the targets came out. The third-line winger required just four pucks to punch out four targets affixed to the corners of the net to win the shooting accuracy event — and he did it in just 7.8 seconds, another Jets skills record. He broke the previous record shared by Wheeler and Laine (4-for-4 in 8.4 seconds).

Meanwhile, blue-liner Luca Sbisa, who scored his first goal of the season last week in Dallas in a 5-3 loss to the Stars, won the hardest-shot event, unloading a slapper in his last of three drives that clocked in at 99.4 m.p.h. Tucker Poolman of Team White finished second (97.9), while Dmitry Kulikov of Team Blue finished third (96.2).

“It’s nice to get bragging rights for the year, so I’ll take it,” Sbisa said. “I had (a) rough idea where I was gonna be, but after that first shot (94.2) I was like, ‘Maybe I should hit the gym a bit more’ and then I got it back up to kind of what I was hoping it would go for.”

The evening’s entertainment also featured a skills relay and a series of breakaways, all won by Team White.

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The Grey Cup Parade passes right by Bell MTS Place and the downtown will be a gong show, so the Jets have moved their practice to the Iceplex today at 11 a.m.

When it’s done, they immediately fly to California and have games Wednesday night in San Jose, Friday afternoon in Anaheim and Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Winnipeg (14-9-1), third in the Central Division, is 7-2-1 in its last 10 games and is 5-1-0 on the road in November.

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell