Jets reflect on 4 Nations Face-Off

WINNIPEG - As a deep thinker, Jets goaltender Eric Comrie often ponders many of life’s great questions.

On Thursday night Comrie was faced with a personal conundrum. Cheer for Connor Hellebuyck and Kyle Connor on Team USA or root for his home country and good pal Josh Morrissey on Team Canada.

“I was thinking about it last night, like who do I cheer for? I didn’t want Helly to get scored on, so I guess I was kind of cheering for the States I guess, in a way. But I am Canadian, I played for Team Canada, so I was very conflicted. It was like ‘I can’t lose this game’,” laughed Comrie.

Comrie, who was born in Edmonton and spent much of his childhood living in America, dons both the Canadian and American flag on the back of his helmet. Much like the helmet, his fandom was split right down the middle despite Canada emerging victorious, winning 3-2 in overtime.

“When I saw the USA lost, Helly lost, I kinda felt like I lost the game, just because I wanted him to win it. He’s my close friend. But I wanted Josh to win it, too. And I felt really bad for him that he didn’t have the opportunity to play in (the final). But he’s going to have many more opportunities to play for them, he’s an excellent defenceman. But I really felt bad for Helly.”

Shortly before Thursday’s game, Jets fans were met with disappointment as Josh Morrissey was a late scratch for Canada due to illness, while Kyle Connor was a scratch on the American side – leaving Hellebuyck as the lone Jet on the ice.

“Really tough for Josh to miss that game. I know he’s pretty shook about it and rightfully so,” said Dylan DeMelo.

“It was a huge game and obviously a huge stage. I’m sure he is going to get another chance at it this time next year and I’m hoping he will get that shot to play in a big game like that.”

“When he woke up, he was throwing up all day, went to the rink, tried to feel, hopefully be a little bit better when he got there and it didn't go any better,” said Head Coach Scott Arniel.

“He ended up spending the night in the hotel, watching, which is so unfortunate. Was really hoping that he could be around that. But at the end of the day, it was great for him to have that participation to be around those guys.”

As for Kyle Connor, Arniel was disappointed his star forward wasn’t able to find his way into the lineup for the big game – an experience that could help the Jets down the road.

“There's a lot of players, for all four teams, that had to sit out games. It's disappointing. I was really hoping he could be a part of that,” said Arniel.

“Like I mentioned, the biggest thing for me is not only that they're representing their country, but that they're getting to play in those high-pressure games and be around those elite players, much like themselves, and kind of absorb it all, take it all in and hopefully help us for the remainder of the year and into the playoffs, when those experiences are vital.”

The 4 Nations Faceoff was the first ‘best on best’ hockey tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Fans and players alike were starved for a tournament like this one.

“We need to have more best of the best. I’m looking forward to the Olympics next year and going forward. I think the biggest thing that I took away from it was the response from everybody else in the community,” said Dylan DeMelo.

“You got ESPN’s First Take talking about (hockey). You got P.K. Subban vouching for not just the sport but for the athletes and the mindset on what (the event) meant to these guys. At the same time as the NBA All-Star Game, you see two ends of the spectrum. You see a pickup basketball game with guys doing half-court shots and you three fights in nine seconds. It’s a huge difference.”

“I think it was unbelievable for the game of hockey. If I think about growing the game, it’s a hard game to grow. In the sense that unfortunately it’s a very expensive game to play for kids, and it shouldn’t be,” said Comrie.

“Just watching it last night, it was unbelievable. I think it’s going to get so many people who never watched the game in the States to hope they can get their kids into hockey and start playing.”

ONTO SAINT LOU’

The Jets re-ignite their schedule and hope to continue their win streak on Saturday when they take on the Blues.

Arniel said following Friday’s skate that both Hellebuyck and Morrissey were on their way back to Manitoba for some much-needed rest and won’t be with the team for the game. Kyle Connor was on his way to Missouri – he’ll be in the lineup Saturday against St. Louis.

“I'll talk to him once we get down to St. Louis. But he was the one right away wanting to play. He wanted to play in St. Louis. I don't ever want to take that option away from the guys,” said Arniel.

The Jets rode in the break on an eight-game win streak and hope to make it nine – a franchise record. DeMelo knows it won’t come easy.

“We were playing really well, it’s not going to just replicate itself, we feel like we’ve had a good week of practice here and we need to try to get our mindset right and get things ready to go for a big game,” said DeMelo.

“We want to keep this thing going, we want to see how far we can take it and continue to improve on our game.”