Jets waste no time preparing for preseason on Day 1 of training camp

WINNIPEG - The first preseason game on the Winnipeg Jets schedule isn't until Sunday, but they wasted no time in getting into some form of game action.
A scrimmage made up the final 15 minutes of Thursday's first on-ice session of training camp, with Team White narrowly edging out Team Blue 2-1 in a shootout.
As is always the case, there was a specific reason why head coach Paul Maurice wanted to scrimmage on the first day.
"What it will do is allow me to keep some of the veterans, if we can stack enough scrimmage time here, to keep some of the veteran players out of the exhibition games," Maurice said at the conclusion of the team's 80-minute skate.

"We're going to dress real young teams here straight through the first four," Maurice said. "I've got to get all these guys playing, I want to see them in positions that there's some open ice there. You don't want to give them one game and make a decision."

This was also the first opportunity for Maurice to see some of the new additions to the roster. Nate Schmidt was paired with Josh Morrissey, Riley Nash was between Jansen Harkins and Evgeny Svechnikov, and Brenden Dillon was alongside Neal Pionk.
Dillon's reputation precedes him. His 143 hits last season were the second most on the Washington Capitals roster. On the first day of camp, he had a couple hits that stood up a few of the Jets forwards.
"That physicality, you need to have certain kinds of players on your team," said Maurice. "His partner's a real aggressive guy. But we have skilled defencemen back there too that aren't able to do that. So we need to have that little texture back there."
The full lines on Day 1 looked like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Copp-Dubois-Ehlers
Stastny-Lowry-Vesalainen
Harkins-Nash-Svechnikov
Malott-Toninato-Perfetti
Suess-Gustafsson-Johnson
Eyssimont-Reichel-Poganski
Morrissey-Schmidt
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
Heinola-Beaulieu
Samberg-Kovacevic
Chisholm-Lundmark
Even with the additions on the blue line, Jets captain Blake Wheeler knows that names on paper don't mean much.
"It doesn't mean a thing," he said. "The best team on paper is not the team that wins. I mean, Tampa has got some talent, but they had talent when they got swept by Columbus, too. So, there's way more to it than that and that's the most important thing. On paper, we look pretty good. But it doesn't mean anything."
That's why the pace was at a high level from the first whistle until the end on Thursday, a pace that's expected to keep up throughout camp.

After all, some line-up spots are up for grabs.
"We have two kind of holes, if you will, that are going to be auditioned," said Maurice. "We have (Vesalainen) over on his right side, because we've got some room on the right side of our ice. So he plays the right wing, Evgeny (Svechnikov) does, so he'll get a chance there. But a lot of guys, (Dominic) Toninato, you may see Nash on the right wing at times, too. We've got (David Gustafsson) in the middle, (Cole) Perfetti will get a chance in the middle, which will allow us to move some pieces around."
Maurice admits he's going with a young line-up, knowing that on some nights in the preseason the young group will be under a lot of pressure from the opposition.
"I don't want them to have just one look, I want these guys to be looking at four games and maybe five, to get a feel, if injury allows it, and performance," said Maurice. "I'm very interested.
"We want these players going in and playing against lineups that are pretty solid, and put them under duress a little bit."
Those young pieces will be around a core group that has been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the past four seasons. To make it a fifth, Wheeler knows the Jets need everyone pulling in the same direction.
"Leadership is a shared identity. The best teams have layers of that; it's not on one guy, or one or two guys, you have it throughout your lineup," Wheeler said. "You start working your way through mid-to-late 20s, it's time for you to take on a lot of that. That group of guys on our team has done that, and they're kind of in that position now and it's great."

Connor Hellebuyck said making the most of the opportunity in front of them is critical. In fact, it's something Wheeler brings up to players inside the room on a regular basis.
"I think we just have a subtly different mindset coming in. We know we're getting older, not getting any younger," said Hellebuyck. "Once you become that older guy, you look back and you wish that things would have went differently so now's our time for that to be different."
ICE CHIPS
One player that Maurice anticipated would see a lot of preseason time is Dylan Samberg. However, that plan is now a bit up in the air after the 22-year-old fell awkwardly near the end of Thursday's session and needed help off the ice.
Maurice said they'll know more about the nature of the lower-body injury tomorrow.
"Fingers crossed, not even for the Winnipeg Jets, but for him," Maurice said. "Train all summer and he's an exhibition guy, he's playing 4 or 5 or 6. So I hope he's ready to go."