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Good day to all.
On X (formerly known as Twitter), I tossed it out there that in the absence of under-the-weather centre Mark Scheifele on Wednesday night, the Winnipeg Jets needed play drivers to step up and, I noted, “27 and 81 weren’t it.”
Those, as most of my readers will know, are the jersey numbers of Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor.
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Watching from the comfort of home, I didn’t particularly care for either winger’s performance in what resulted in an uninspired 4-2 loss to the visiting Nashville Predators.
On my eye test, they got failing grades.
The deep-analytics experts pounced on me almost immediately.
OK, you got me. The metrics suggest Ehlers might just have been the most effective among a very lousy group of Winnipeg forwards.
Best of a bad lot. That’s high praise.
Yes, Ehlers gained the offensive zone a lot and had puck possession a lot. Did he accomplish anything with the biscuit on his stick? One shot on goal. Two missed shots on goal. No goals. No points.
Ehlers has one goal in 10 games. He has three in his last 21, along with eight assists in that time.
I’d venture to say that given his incredible skill set, he isn’t a consistent producer right now for the Jets. And the real tough stuff of the NHL season is upon them.
Hey, I like the guy. A lot. I had the pleasure of interviewing him dozens of times and enjoyed every interaction. Witnessing some of his mesmerizing dashes and sensational tallies were thrilling parts of covering the Jets beat for five seasons.
He’s a uniquely talented player who can, has and will have fans leaping out of their seats.
But lately, these old eyes of mine haven’t seen enough of that.
Nikolaj Ehlers (Ryan Sun / The Associated Press files)
The Briane Harris saga is just plain sad.
Did the world-class curler from Winnipeg knowingly take a banned substance that was detected in an initial sample in late January and then a second sample just before the 2024 Scotties championship in Calgary in mid-February?
To me, it just seems well beyond the realm of possibility.
But how traces of Ligandrol — which is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency because it is used to increase muscle growth and energy — got into Harris’s system remains a mystery.
Lawyers for Harris, the lead on Kerri Einarson’s four-time Canadian championship squad, will launch an appeal of her provisional suspension that could sideline her for up to four years.
They maintain she was unknowingly exposed to the substance through bodily contact.
There’s no telling how long it will take to get the case resolved.
Curling fans across the country — me included — hope for some kind of logical explanation to this doping mess, and that Harris’s reputation can be restored.
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