Vilardi welcomed back to world of contact hockey

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This article was published 21/11/2023 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TAMPA — There was no audible gasp, but a real sense of surprise when Brenden Dillon stepped up at the blue line and rubbed Gabriel Vilardi into the boards.

Under normal circumstances, this act wouldn’t be cause for anything other than a shoulder shrug. Since Vilardi was still sporting a yellow non-contact jersey during the Winnipeg Jets skate on Tuesday, some of his teammates were wondering what was up?

It turns out Vilardi, who has missed the past five weeks with an MCL injury to his right knee was not only prepared for contact, he invited it — and the hooting and hollering from his teammates that followed.

“Gabe wanted to get a little bit of bumping around to get a feel for stuff,” said associate coach Scott Arniel. “I don’t know if he was expecting Dilly to hit him (that hard). Half of the team didn’t know (Vilardi was ready for contact). They thought maybe Dilly was colour blind and didn’t see the yellow jersey. At the end of the day, Gabe is getting close.”

Just how close will be determined by how Vilardi handles the next few days.

He isn’t expected to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday or the Florida Panthers on Friday, making Sunday’s tilt against the Nashville Predators the earliest he could have his number called.

“It will be great to have him back. He controls the puck so much,” said winger Alex Iafallo. “He’s itching to be back. To have a player like that come back for us will be huge.”

GOALIE PLAN OFFICIALLY TBA: With the next five games spread out nicely, Arniel was asked if he was planning to ride Connor Hellebuyck or if he might be looking to get Laurent Brossoit a start before the end of the road trip.

Arniel wasn’t ready to reveal his intentions, preferring to take more of a wait-and-see approach.

“I’m not sure, yet. We’ve got five big ones here,” said Arniel. “We’ll see where we’re at, and we’re going game to game here and figure out where we are.”

It says here that with home games coming up against the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers next week, a fifth start of the campaign for Brossoit coming against the Predators could make sense.

With the quarter point of the season quickly approaching, the only way Brossoit is going to be able to eclipse 20 starts, let alone push for somewhere in the range of 25, is to play more than once every 10 to 14 days.

RIDING THE LIGHTNING: The Jets arrived in time for some of the coaches and players to get a scouting report on the Lightning, who rallied for a 5-4 overtime win over the Boston Bruins on Monday night to improve to 9-6-4 on the season. It’s an impressive record considering they’ve been without all-world goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for the entire season.

“I was able to watch the game. That gave a good taste of what they are,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “They’re a great transition team. Obviously, they look a little different than they have in the past. They’re certainly missing some of those guys, but they’ve got some other guys that are starting to find their identity.

“It certainly hurts when you’re missing one of the best goalies in the world, but they’ve got a lethal power play and they move the puck so well. They’ve got such high-end skill… you want to play low-event hockey against teams like this, but it’s easier said than done.”

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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