Perreault faces old team for first time

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This article was published 07/12/2014 (3950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT can’t be easy to switch allegiances, to trade one jersey colour for another.

That said, when a man has no choice in the matter, moving on sometimes is not only the best option, but the only one.

Mathieu Perreault will suit up for the first time against his old club Sunday afternoon, when the Anaheim Ducks pay a visit to the MTS Centre. Perreault signed with the Jets as a free agent this summer after one year in Anaheim and after negotiations on a new deal stalled and Ducks management opted to press on without him.

That decision left him “a little sour” Perreault said Saturday.

“You play there for a year. Bruce (Boudreau, Anaheim’s coach) I had him in Washington, I think he liked me. I thought I was going to re-sign. But it didn’t happen.

“We just couldn’t get the right numbers with what we wanted, so we just left it. It’s all behind me now and (today) there’s no friends on the ice. It worked out just fine for me. I’m having a lot of fun here, and we’re on a great run.”

The Jets, 4-0-1 in their last five, will be tested against a Ducks squad that has posted the best record in the NHL since the start of last season and is cruising along again this year at 17-6-5 and is in the midst of a three-game winning streak.

“It’s always exciting (to play against your old team),” said Perreault. “You want to beat them, obviously. I have some good friends over there on that team and it’s good to see them, as well. It’s a good game for us because they’re one of the better teams in the league and we want to show that we can play with them.”

MAN DOWN: The Ducks will be without star winger Corey Perry, who was injured after a hip check from Minnesota’s Keith Ballard Friday night. He travelled with the team to Winnipeg, but won’t be assessed until the team returns to California after the game.

“It’s going to take some time to heal,” said Perry Saturday. “Just one of those things. I’ve done it to the other leg before and kind of know what to do and where we’re at.”

Perry leads the Ducks with 14 goals and is second to Ryan Getzlaf in scoring with 22 points.

CAUTIOUS CREW: The Ducks have had to deal with an outbreak of the mumps this season and have been without Perry, along with defencemen Francois Beauchemin and Clayton Stoner in the process. Winger Emerson Etem, who was sent to the minors, was just diagnosed as having the mumps on the weekend.

As a result, the Jets asked media members to use hand disinfectant before entering their dressing room if they had any dealings with the Ducks prior to Sunday’s game.

ALL ABOARD: The Jets drew rave reviews for their work in Friday’s win — the first game after news broke a day earlier they will be without defencemen Zach Bogosian, Toby Enstrom and Grant Clitsome until 2015. But Paul Postma, who saw his ice time jump about two minutes against the Avs as a result, also praised the work of the forward crew for their commitment to the defensive blueprint.

“Our defence is good not just because of our defencemen, it’s a whole team effort,” he said. “(Colorado) getting four and five shots, nine shots through two periods, is almost a direct result of how we played tight in the neutral zone and didn’t let them carry the puck in much, and making them dump pucks. We didn’t give them much.”

The Ducks, however, will be a tough matchup.

“They’re a similar team to Colorado,” said Postma. “They have a lot of offensive firepower. It was a good test for us (Friday) night and this is going to be another good test for us again.”

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