Jets rally round Barron

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This article was published 19/04/2023 (872 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAS VEGAS — Morgan Barron has quickly become the bloody face of the Winnipeg Jets. That’s a beautiful thing for a tight-knit team that has found a rather gruesome rallying point.

Barron, 24, was cut by the skate blade of Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Laurent Brossoit in the first period of the Jets’ 5-1 victory on Tuesday night.

“It looked like he got attacked by a shark,” Adam Lowry said of the incident, which came during a wild, goal-mouth scramble. “We’re all so worried about the puck crossing the line and then all of a sudden we see a trail of blood basically from the crease all the way to the bench.”

The scary incident quickly became the talk of the hockey world, especially after Barron returned in the middle frame sporting a full cage and approximately 75 stitches to close the deep wound near his eye.

“His modelling days I think are over,” defenceman Brenden Dillon joked on Wednesday following practice at T-Mobile Arena. “He might have to move to hand model or foot model. It looked like he was back in his Cornell (college hockey) days. Had the full cage going. I can’t say enough about him coming back period, but coming back and playing as well as he did.”

Indeed, there was still a considerable buzz around the Jets room about Barron nearly 24 hours later.

“Freak incident. Those things kind of ripple through the team, for sure,” said blue-liner Josh Morrissey. “To see him come back and see him in between periods, he had a big huddle of people around him working on him and he still was kind of smiling and stuff like that. To have him come back was definitely a boost. He’s a character guy, a tough guy. That’s kind of what the playoffs are all about, battling through injury and stuff like that. Definitely a huge boost for us.”

Barron didn’t join his teammates on the ice Wednesday — a “well-deserved day off” is how coach Rick Bowness described it — but he is expected to be ready to play Game 2 on Thursday.

“We’re quite pleased that there wasn’t nearly the swelling we thought there would be,” said Bowness.

“Give credit to our medical staff for taking care of that. That was the big concern coming into (Wednesday), just how bad it got overnight. I just talked to him now. As bad as it was, it’s about as good as it’s going to look, as good as it possibly could be. There wasn’t any major swelling. The colour is going to start coming out now, the rainbow around the eye. But man, give him nothing but credit for coming back and playing, and not even hesitant to get back on the ice and take a run at somebody in the corner.”

Barron spoke following the game, describing the chaotic scene that ensued and how he texted his parents and girlfriend while he was getting his face sewn back together to let them know he was alright, knowing they’d be horrified by what they saw watching back home on television.

He had fired a shot in the slot and then crashed the net as the puck bounced around the crease. He ultimately lost his balance, was pushed from behind by Vegas forward Chandler Stephenson and fell face first into Brossoit’s blade. It soon became apparent that something was seriously wrong, as blood poured from Barron’s head and both teams jumped to his aid, including Stephenson pulling him up from the ice.

“I was trying to figure out if the puck went it. It was sitting pretty close and, obviously, I saw the skate coming and it was just an unlucky play, a little bit unfortunate,” said Barron.

“The first thought was I could see out of the eye, so that was the main thing. I didn’t get to watch much of the end of the first or the start of the second, but it was nice going back to the bench and being up 2-0. Because it was 0-0 when I left, so I just had my eyes closed listening to the guys hooting and hollering whenever they scored.”

He finished the night without a point — registering three shots in 10:44 of ice time, including 1:31 on the penalty kill — but his return after the cut proved to be a pivotal moment in the game.

“He came back and he’s looking at me, ‘I’m ready.’ I said, ‘Do you need a little skate or something here?’ ‘No, I’m ready to go,’” Bowness said with a chuckle. “And, of course, he went right out and he banged into someone. That’s Winnipeg Jet hockey that we’re all in, and Morgan is a perfect example of that.”

Winnipeg will now try to carry that momentum forward and really seize early control of the series by grabbing a second straight road game to start.

“That’s probably one of the best games we’ve played all year,” said Bowness. “Is there little things we watch and look for from the start of the game until the end of the game? Yeah. We know they’re going to be a little bit more aggressive (Thursday). So we’ll prepare for that as best we can. This is the top team in the Western Conference for a reason. They’re very well balanced, they have a lot of speed, their defence are coming, and they’ve got some great players back there so no real surprises. And we have nothing but a ton of respect for the way that their team plays.”

Forward Nino Niederreiter loved what his team did on Tuesday, but doesn’t feel they saw anywhere close to the best of Vegas.

“We know they’re going to be a lot better. They weren’t very sharp, in my opinion” he said. “The goals we scored, most of them they gave us. So we know we expect a better Vegas, but we also know we’ve got to be better as well. So can’t be satisfied with the win we had. We gotta be better and take it game-by-game.”

The Jets could be without forward Nikolaj Ehlers for a second straight playoff game. He’s still dealing with an upper-body injury, although he was a full participant at practice. However, it’s noteworthy he wasn’t on the power play during drills, and he was essentially a placeholder for Barron on the line with Lowry and Mason Appleton during rushes.

Forward Kevin Stenlund and defenceman Neal Pionk both missed the skate for “maintenance” but are expected to play.

“We’re definitely a sum of all parts,” defenceman Dylan DeMelo said of the next-man-up mentality.

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“We’ve got guys that carry the mail a little more than others, but we have a lot of faith in our group, even the guys that are in and out of the lineup have done a great job. We were comfortable with whoever was out there. Everybody played great and got the job done.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.