FROM THE PRESS BOX
MIKE SAYS: How about that press conference on Monday from Kevin Cheveldayoff? Although he ended up speaking for just north of 30 minutes, the Jets’ general manager didn’t say a whole lot when it comes to the direction of his team or any ideas on how to get them out of this prolonged tailspin.
The plan, at least for now, appears to maintain the status quo and hope for similar results.
In that sense, tonight’s game is going to be extremely telling. If the Jets come out with some jump and look like the contender Cheveldayoff clearly believes they are, that will be a good sign and perhaps buy everyone some additional time. But if they come out with yet another stinker, I’m not sure where you go from here. How could there not be changes made?
Vegas isn’t exactly an ideal opponent. They have essentially owned Winnipeg over the years — a fact that was brought up this morning with Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy. Why do they seem to play so well against the Jets?
“We’ve got a bunch of guys from out here. I think they love playing here. Other than that, I don’t have a good reason,” he said. “Some teams just seem to play a little confident against (certain teams), and that grows every time you play them, and maybe gets in the other team’s head.”
Indeed, the Golden Knights have four local products on the roster, including Canadian Olympian Mark Stone and fellow forwards Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar, and defenceman Zach Whitecloud.
Vegas Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart (Jeff McIntosh/ The Canadian Press files)
Carter Hart, who signed with Vegas after being acquitted of sexual assault charges, has won just four of his first 10 starts while posting a 3.28 goals-against-average and .876 save-percentage. But he does own a career record of 4-0 against the Jets, dating back to his time with the Philadelphia Flyers.
KEN SAYS: In the seemingly season-long search for line combinations that can lead to secondary offence, the intrigue for me comes on the newly configured second line, with Jonathan Toews sliding between Gabe Vilardi and Cole Perfetti.
Although the Jets held an optional skate on Tuesday and there could be further modifications, there’s a case to be made that this trio might find success. Toews has shown a bit more jump coming out of the break, chipping in three assists in five games and the thought was that his hockey intelligence should mesh well with Perfetti, who has increased his shot volume and quality of late.
Both Toews and Perfetti are among the list of players enduring lengthy goal-scoring droughts (24 games for Toews; Perfetti has no goals in 16 games and has been limited to one assist during the past eight games), but with both guys looking a bit sharper of late, perhaps they can find success together.
Vilardi is having another strong season, with 18 goals and 35 points, so he could serve as the primary trigger man on the line and is also a strong puck distributor. The pieces should be in place here.
Now, there’s been a lot of debate about the lines and the lack of continuity, but until several players pull themselves out of their respective funks, the line blender figures to keep spinning a bit more.
As for Morgan Barron, there’s a case to be made for him to move up with Mark Scheifele if Scott Arniel goes to the in-case-of-emergency-break-glass plan of having Kyle Connor move to his own line, but for the time being, Barron’s greatest value — at least to me — is alongside captain Adam Lowry on a checking line that also needs to chip in secondary offence.
I always keep a close eye on the Manitobans when the Golden Knights roll into town, but Mitch Marner is under the microscope as well, since it will be the first opportunity to watch the skilled winger in person with his new team. With 40 games under his belt since this marquee free-agency signing, Marner has been a very good fit, despite some of the outside noise about his production.
Mitch Marner, left, poses for a photo with his jersey alongside Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon in July 2025. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via The Associated Press files)
Marner is an excellent two-way player and he’s chipping in at a point-per-game pace while adapting to a new team for the first time in his career. While he’s gone three games without a point, Marner racked up three goals and eight points in the previous five games, so it will be interesting to see how he plays alongside Tomas Hertl this evening. For those wondering, Marner has nine goals and 30 points in 23 career games against the Jets.
Jack Eichel was my pre-season pick for Most Valuable Player, so that should give you an idea of how much I value the skillset and leadership ability he possesses.
PROJECTED LINES
WINNIPEG JETS
FORWARDS:
Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Perfetti-Toews-Vilardi
Barron-Lowry-Niederreiter
Nyquist-Namestnikov-Pearson
DEFENCE:Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-Schenn
GOAL:Hellebuyck
Comrie
HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Stanley (serving one-game suspension), D Miller, F Koepke
INJURED: None
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
FORWARDS:Barbashev-Eichel-Stone
Marner-Hertl-Dorofeyev
Saad-Howden-Holtz
Reinhardt-Sissons-Kolesar
DEFENCE:
Hanifin-Hutton
Lauzon-Korczak
Megna-Whitecloud
GOAL:
Hart
Schmid
HEALTHY SCRATCHES: RW Bowman, F Smith
INJURED: G Hill (lower-body), D Pietrangelo (hip), D Theodore (upper-body), D McNabb (upper-body), C Karlsson (lower-body)
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy on the struggles of both the Jets and his own team:
“It’s a humbling game. I mean they were, what, the Presidents’ Trophy last year? And now they can’t find a way all of a sudden. With some similar guys and similar core. That’s the way the league is. It doesn’t take much. I think there’s a lot of parity, competitive balance, whatever you want to call it. And you’ve got to make sure you’re ready to make those plays. And usually it comes down to three or four. It’s not like you’re getting outplayed every night. I know we aren’t. In fact, I think our metrics now look pretty good, but we’ve got to find a way at crunch time to get it done.”
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
Mike has an early story coming on Winnipegger Mark Stone, who spoke today about making the Canadian Olympic team. Ken will handle the game analysis of Jets versus Golden Knights. You can find both pieces in for Wednesday’s paper and online at winnipegfreepress.com.
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