Observations from the perch

Opinion

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This article was published 06/01/2021 (1709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This is the first — and hopefully last — column I ever write about a training camp scrimmage. But considering the unusual circumstances in play, Wednesday’s hour-long event at Bell MTS Iceplex was no run-of-the-mill affair for the Winnipeg Jets.

For starters, it’s the closest they’ll get to game action prior to puck drop next Thursday on a new NHL season. There are no pre-season contests to work out the kinks, which is why the pace and urgency was noticeably higher than one might expect.

There’s also the fact the lines and defensive pairings are pretty close to set, with everyone already knowing where they stand on the organizational depth chart. That eliminated much of the experimentation you often get in these things, which makes it much more difficult to try to read the tea leaves.

That being said, I’m not about to put a lot of stock in what went down, as Team Blue rallied for a 3-2 victory over Team White in a contest involving 32 of the 40 players currently in camp. (The roster will have to be trimmed to 23 by next week, plus a four-to-six player taxi squad).

If I did, then the takeaways are that veteran Trevor Lewis, here on a pro tryout, is going to challenge Connor McDavid for the NHL points lead, depth skaters Jansen Harkins and C.J. Suess will outscore snipers Patrik Laine and Mark Scheifele, and Moose defenceman Nelson Nogier just launched a new career as an offensive, high-flying winger. (The Jets were short a forward, so he moved up and lit the lamp, one-timing a feed from Manitoba Moose teammate Skyler McKenzie).

But there’s no harm in sharing some observations from my perch. With that, here are 10:

— The Jets can’t afford any more bad luck. They had their share of misfortune last year, so you could almost hear everyone on the team hold their breath when Scheifele and linemate Blake Wheeler ran into each other in the opening minutes of the scrimmage. Fortunately both men got up, had a laugh and were none the worse for wear.

— Kyle Connor hasn’t lost his touch. He was the NHL’s hottest scorer when the 2019-20 season came to a halt last March, and the 24-year-old showed off his slick hands, intercepting a pass and beating Laurent Brossoit on a breakaway after a dizzying set of dekes. He really sold it, too, with a spin of his stick that he then holstered as he celebrated with teammates. Connor scored a career-high 38 goals in 71 games last season, despite getting off to a slow start due to a contract dispute that caused him to miss camp. If he can come flying out of the gate this season, look out, playing on a new line with Laine and Paul Stastny.

— Connor Hellebuyck is raring to go. No surprise that he made several highlight-reel saves, including some leather larceny on breakaways by Andrew Copp and Harkins that left both men shaking their heads. Hellebuyck even did a dramatic windmill on the Harkins grab to rub it in. He’s going to play a lot this season, although the Jets hope they can lessen his workload by being better in front of him.

— Laine was focused on defensive detail. At one point, he was the lone man back on a two-on-one, and he nicely broke it up before quickly turning the play the other way. That, even more than his ability to score, is what the team needs more of from him, and others.

— Lewis looks like a guy who really wants to make the team. The 33-year-old two-time Stanley Cup winner who has spent his entire 12-year NHL career with Los Angeles made an immediate impact as he came out of quarantine and joined the group. Lewis had a beautiful one-timer goal, then set up Harkins for what proved to be the game-winner on a two-on-one. He could be a solid addition to the team’s bottom-six.

— Speaking of Harkins, I really noticed him, Suess (who opened the scoring for Team White with a nifty wrap-around) and Mason Appleton in the scrimmage, for all the right reasons. Harkins and Appleton seem locks to crack the roster, while Suess is a depth candidate. But all three could see a bigger-than-expected opportunity, especially with Jack Roslovic at home in Ohio as an unsigned restricted free agent wanting a trade, and with veteran forward Mathieu Perreault once again nursing an injury. David Gustafsson, another potential depth option, is still dealing with an injury and skated in a yellow no-contact jersey, along with Perreault, prior to the scrimmage. And Dominic Toninato, signed to a two-way deal in the off-season, has yet to join his new teammates after being deemed “unfit to practice” for undisclosed reasons.

— Any line with Copp and Adam Lowry is going to make life miserable for their opponents. Coach Paul Maurice had the duo, which skated with Appleton Wednesday (Perreault was in that spot until he was injured on Day 1) go head to head with the Scheifele, Wheeler and Nikolaj Ehlers trio. And they did their job, keeping Winnipeg’s No. 1 line fairly quiet. Now do that 56 times against the likes of McDavid, Auston Matthews and Elias Pettersson. Easier said than done, right?

— Paging Kristian Vesalainen. Again, it was just one scrimmage. But again, I found myself wanting to see more from the 21-year-old. It was a similar theme during last season’s training camp. The Jets have plenty of patience with the 2017 first-round pick, but whether the Finnish forward can eventually put his ample tools together and make an impact at this level remains to be seen.

— Logan Stanley is quicker. He’s never going to blow anyone away, but the 6-7 defenceman is definitely moving better than ever, which Maurice noted earlier in the week when singling him out as a player who has impressed. Stanley is going to start the season on the farm, but the 22-year-old first-rounder (2016) is getting closer to becoming a potential call-up option if he can continue his long development path. At one point, he and Lowry collided, and I think I felt the Earth shake a bit.

— Derek Forbort and Neal Pionk made a good first impression together. The Jets signed Forbort to potentially fill the spot vacated by Dmitry Kulikov on the second defence pairing. His size certainly stands out (6-4, 219 pounds) on a blue line that can use it, and the Duluth. Minn., product has been training in the off-season with Pionk, from nearby Hermantown.

One final thought: Team Blue certainly relished their victory. The reward was getting to stand at centre ice and gloat while the losers were forced to do a couple hard trips around the rink. It’s nice to know that some things never change in hockey, regardless of what level you’re playing at and how much you make.

Starting next week, the Jets will hope to put it all together and start taking some victory laps of their own.

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg