Hawks eye Jets D-men

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/02/2012 (5280 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman was at the MTS Centre Friday night. He’s made no secret of his desire to add some defensive help to the Hawks’ roster before the trading deadline.

While Pavel Kubina (Tampa), Chris Campoli (Montreal) and Marek Zidlicky (Minnesota) remain the most-talked about possibilities, the Jets do have some blue-line assets that could be available, including Johnny Oduya, Randy Jones and Mark Flood, all of whom will become unrestricted free agents.

It’s worth noting that two other scouts were at MTS Centre Friday — Tampa’s Gerry O’Flaherty and Edmonton’s Dave Semenko.

ANOTHER NEW LOOK: Chris Mason, the Jets’ fashion-trending netminder, was sporting a new look Friday.

Mason was wearing a new mask, courtesy the artists at EYECANDYAIR (Twitter: @eyecandyair) in Woodbridge, Ont., that features the stylized maple leaf and jet on the current uniform and a back plate that features the Jets’ inaugural season logo and also includes the names of his two daughters, Avery and Quinn.

Last summer, Mason unveiled his current mask to great fanfare. It featured two images of Iron Maiden mascot Eddie in a World War II airplane and a tribute to his family on the back plate painted in an aboriginal-art style. Mason has also unveiled new pads that feature the Jet logo.

WAKEY-WAKEY: Winnipeg hockey fans got their belated first look at Bruins’ budding star Tyler Seguin Friday night. Seguin did accompany the Bruins to Winnipeg for their first visit in early December, but was a late scratch after missing a mandatory team breakfast on game day. The sophomore pro blamed his absence on setting his phone to the wrong time zone.

Not this time.

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“I thought that would be the first question,” said Seguin Friday morning. “I’m very excited and happy I was up three hours BEFORE my alarm this morning. My alarm was set for 8:30 and I woke up at six, seven and eight. And then at 8:30, (Gregory) Campbell is my roommate and he leaves before me, but I was up and he made sure to turn all the lights on and open the windows… I was freezing when I got out of the shower.”

QUOTABLE: “Maybe you just want to make sure you change your underwear and put on a new shirt-and-tie combo tonight. Maybe a fresh suit right from the dry cleaners. Maybe something like that so that you feel fresh and ready to go.” — Jets’ winger Evander Kane after the game-day skate on Friday, with some possible adjustments he and his teammates might try to change up the routine and break the trend of losing the second of back-to-back games.

SICK BAY UPDATE: Jet D-man Zach Bogosian (foot) missed his second consecutive game Friday. Head coach Claude Noel listed him as day to day, but he won’t be green-lighted until he practises. He did not practice on Friday.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait