Dynamic Ehlers still a question mark?

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This article was published 21/04/2023 (876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The plot continues to thicken when it comes to one of the biggest offensive weapons for the Winnipeg Jets.

Forward Nikolaj Ehlers has yet to make an appearance in the playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights, missing Tuesday and Thursday night games at T-Mobile despite being a full participant at Monday and Wednesday practices.

So will he be in the lineup for Saturday’s Game 3 at Canada Life Centre (3 p.m CT)?

“We would hope so,” coach Rick Bowness said during Friday’s availability in Vegas just before the team boarded the charter to fly home.

“We’ll see how he feels when he shows up at the rink. Really until we get a clearance from the medical staff, he’s not playing. Hopefully they will clear him (Saturday) and he’s recovered enough that we’re able to put him back in the lineup.”

The Free Press then inquired about why Ehlers has sat out despite apparently being cleared for full contact, given that he was wearing a regular sweater at practice and not the bright red one that players on the mend (such as Cole Perfetti right now) traditionally wear.

“The guys know that he’s dealing with something,” Bowness began.

“So we were hopeful that he would be able to play and that’s why he practised with those guys, with his teammates well aware of the issue he’s dealing with. I think there was respect there, to stay away from him, make sure you don’t bump into him. Now, Cole’s in a red but he’s not even close to being ready to play so I think that’s more of an indication of that. We’re hoping that Ehls would come around and he just hasn’t.”

Ehlers was injured on April 11 in Minnesota when Wild forward Ryan Hartman crushed him with a blindside hit, resulting in a one-game suspension.

He declared himself ready to play last weekend, but didn’t reveal the nature of his upper-body injury, other than saying it wasn’t a concussion. However, Bowness said the 27-year-old Dane jumped the gun, as medical staff aren’t yet ready to sign off on him getting in the lineup.

Winnipeg could certainly use the boost that Ehlers would provide. All eyes will be on Saturday’s pre-game warmup around 2:30 p.m. CT to see if he’s out there.

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Despite Thursday’s 5-2 loss, the Jets are feeling confident as the scene shifts to Winnipeg where they’ll look to use home-ice to their advantage.

“In a perfect, ideal world, we’d come home with two wins,” forward Pierre-Luc Dubois said Friday. “Now, we’re going to go home in front of our fans. It’s a good feeling.”

Winnipeg went 26-13-2 at Canada Life Centre, and the thought of 15,325 fans on hand for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday afternoon and Monday evening has them thinking about the possibilities.

“Coming in here we expect a long series and we’re excited to have home-ice advantage coming home,” said defenceman Josh Morrissey.

“We’re a confident team at home. We’ve played well at home this year. Certainly our fans bring us a ton of energy, confidence, and we’ve tried to make it a tough place to play all year. I think all those things, having that extra game at home is huge. We’re excited to have playoff hockey back in Winnipeg here.

Dubois said a strong start will be key, as you don’t want to give Vegas a chance to get too comfortable in enemy territory.

“To have that energy on our side is going to be really fun. I’m really excited,” he said.

“A lot of us have never experienced the whiteout. COVID and then last year not making the playoffs. To get a good start, it’s a cliche but it’s a cliche for a reason.”

Morrissey waxed poetic about the last Whiteout he experienced, way back in the 2018-19 season.

“It’s incredible. The experience, the atmosphere is like nothing else I’ve ever played in,” he said.

“It’s electric, an electric atmosphere and it’s a ton of fun to play in. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that and I know the fans are ready — and so are we. We couldn’t be more excited.”

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Of course, the Jets will also want to correct some of their errors, especially from the second and third period when a game they seemed in control of early got away from them.

“I can’t really pinpoint one specific shift or whatever,” Dubois said of where it might have turned.

“I think it’s just some mistakes. When you make one, you want it to stop at one. You don’t want it to get further than that. One mistake led to another led to a goal, so on and so forth. We didn’t play horribly. It’s some easy mistakes that we can fix.”

Morrissey felt Winnipeg backed off much of what it had been doing so well.

“They played well, give them credit, and now it’s a five-game series.”–Josh Morrissey

“We’re a hard gap defensive team. I think throughout the first game and certainly the first period I think we took away a lot of time and space and didn’t give them a lot of room,” he said.

“They’re a very good team, they finished where they did in the standings for that reason, and there are going to be momentum swings in the series. They played well, give them credit, and now it’s a five-game series.”

Bowness has challenged his top players — which would include the top line of Dubois, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor — to be better. Dubois and Connor both scored in Game 1, but the line was neutralized in Game 2 while Vegas got big contributions from its best players.

“Everybody in this league just wants to play well and help their team win. (Thursday), those guys scored. But we could’ve scored in the first half, too, and we played well and we could have been talking differently right now,” said Dubois.

“It’s a long series but you don’t want to change too much. We were successful just the game before and I’m sure it’s gonna come back.”

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The physical play picked up on Thursday, with plenty of post-whistle scrums as Winnipeg and Vegas began to already get sick of seeing each other.

“It’s part of the playoffs. It’s part of what makes it exciting,” said Dubois, who is no stranger to getting in the middle of things.

“It makes every game very intense. You create little rivalries even within the game. It’s just part of the playoffs.”

There’s also a little more verbal jousting happening, he said.

“That’s usually where it goes. I feel like Game 1, you either go to the extreme because both teams are trying to set the tone or both teams are trying to feel each other out. (Thursday), we kind of got closer to the extreme of it.”

“You have to manage your emotions and try to keep cool, or at least in control in those scrums.”–Josh Morrissey

Winnipeg is winning the special teams-battle so far, going two-for-six on the power play (Adam Lowry has both goals) and a perfect seven-for-seven on the penalty kill

“You look around the league and every series has that going on,” Morrissey said of added intensity.

“You have to manage your emotions and try to keep cool, or at least in control in those scrums. Power plays and PKs at big times are a huge part of winning and losing in the playoffs. I thought we did a pretty solid job of that. Like I said, that’s just part of playoff hockey.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg