The good news for the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday morning? Nikolaj Ehlers was back skating with the main group for the first time since leaving the ice a week ago on the first day of training camp with neck spasms.
The not so good news? The veteran forward was wearing a gold “non-contact” jersey.
“Well it’ll be good when we get him in the right colours,” was how Jets coach Rick Bowness responded to being asked if Ehlers’ recovery was charting in the right direction. “He couldn’t do half the drills out there because of the contact drills. At least we got him out and were able to work him and get his conditioning back.”
Bowness is hopeful Ehlers will be able to see his first game action next Monday when the Jets visit Calgary in the second to last game of their pre-season schedule.
Ehlers admitted the freak injury suffered during an off-ice training session on the day he reported to camp has been frustrating, especially on the heels of missing 37 games last season, primarily due to a hernia. He missed 20 games the year before as a result of a knee-on-knee hit delivered by Washington’s Dmitry Orlov.
“Every single time you get injured you think ‘Why me?’,” admitted Ehlers when asked about the mental toll of missing 56 games the past two seasons. “You work out all summer to have a good season and a season like last year for me was mentally, very draining.”
When Ehlers eventually receives the green light from the Jets medical training staff, it’s expected he’ll pick up where he was supposed to start off, joining Cole Perfetti and Nino Niederreiter on Winnipeg’s second line.
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Perfetti received a bit of a scare when he took an elbow to the head from Calgary forward Martin Pospisil late in the second period of Wednesday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Flames. The 21-year-old center did not return for the rest of the game and was re-evaluated Thursday Morning prior to joining a handful of other players on ice that were not part of either group practice.
The team says Perfetti passed all his tests, welcome news on a day when forward Mason Appleton did not practice because of a lower-body injury. Also on the “not available for game action” list as a result of lower-body injuries are forwards Nikita Chibrikov and Danny Zhilkin as well as defensemen Nate Schmidt and Kyle Capobianco.
“We know they all reported in great shape, but as a I said before, there’s summer conditioning, and then there’s NHL conditioning,” pointed out Bowness. “A lot of skating, a lot of drills. They don’t do any battle drills in the summer, and then you’re playing the games.”
The spate of injuries has opened the door for a player like Parker Ford, who began camp as a name and number on the forward depth chart, but has played his way on to to the radar of the coaching staff with a couple of strong performances. The 23 year old non-drafted Providence product will get another opportunity to stay in the conversation as Ford will be in the lineup for Friday Night’s visit to Ottawa.
“I think it’s twofold for Parker that, first of all he’s done well. Really well, More than we could have hoped at this point,” said the Jets bench boss following Thursday’s practice when Ford was part of the veteran group that skated in the morning. “Now we’re going into Ottawa, I’ve seen the lineup., They’re going to have a much better lineup, so we’ll get a better look at that. But also the injuries. They’re opened the door for him as well and given him a couple of extra games.”
Not so fortunate has been forward Colby Barlow. The Jets 2023 first round draft pick just returned to the ice after missing a number of days with a flu bug and congestion issues. Bowness confirmed Barlow will not see any pre-season action this fall, as a result of the plan to go with veteran laden lineups for the final two games next week at Calgary (Monday) and versus Ottawa (Thursday).
Friday’s game between the Senators and Winnipeg will be broadcast exclusively on POWER 97, with the pregame show starting at 4 p.m., followed by the opening faceoff just after 6 p.m.
Winnipeg Jets Lineup – Preseason Game Four
Goalies (2)
39. Laurent Brossoit
60. Collin Delia
Defencemen (7)
14. Ville Heinola
42. Simon Lundmark
45. Declan Chisholm
54. Dylan Samberg
57. Elias Salomonsson
64. Logan Stanley
94. Dean Stewart*
Forwards (12)
12. Jansen Harkins
19. David Gustafsson
21. Dominic Toninato
28. Jeffrey Viel
36. Morgan Barron
40. Daniel Torgersson
47. Brad Lambert
51. Chaz Lucius
59. Jeff Malott
71. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby
73. Parker Ford
87. Kristian Reichel
*Free Agent Invite
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