WINNIPEG – After a 3-2 overtime victory in Chicago last night, the Winnipeg Jets arrived late this morning in the Manitoba capital.
That meant an optional skate for the team this afternoon at Canada Life Centre with 15 players taking part. One of the 15 was Alex Iafallo who moved up in the lineup to skate with Nikolaj Ehlers and Sean Monahan last night. Iafallo believes that having experience playing with everyone will come in handy down the road.
“Yeah, for sure that’s how it works especially around playoff time,” said Iaffalo.
“You know, just getting chemistry with different players. Obviously, everybody’s really good in here so you just gotta feed off each other and learn from each other and play that way.”
Rick Bowness has been asking for more from his second line and he did get that in Chicago. Ehlers, Monahan and Iafallo produced six scoring chances and didn’t give up one at five-on-five per Natural Stat Trick.
"We're trying to get that second (line) the right fit and last night it looked really good. Nik on the left wing, I moved him over there because he hadn't scored on the right side, so I moved him back to the left wing,” said Bowness.
“Alex's minutes were down. We're trying to get him some more minutes and that line looked really good last night so we're hoping that will continue."
Iafallo moving up in the lineup meant that Cole Perfetti was slotted in with Vladislav Namestnikov and Morgan Barron. Perfetti has one point in his last 15 games and says he just wants to help out anyway he can.
“Just keep going. Keep on going, trying my hardest and giving everything I’ve got. I’m anxious for it to turn for me personally, but at the same time just do whatever I can. If it’s not on the stats sheet, then away from the puck, any situation that I can help,” said Perfetti.
“That’s kind of my mindset right now. Just work my hardest, play the right way, try to play a 200-foot game and be relied on in any situation. That’s kinda my mindset right now.”
Perfetti mentioned that he has some good chemistry with Namestnikov and it showed for stretches Friday night. Bowness said he liked what he saw from that line as well.
“Listen, he puts a lot of pressure on himself. He'd gone 15 games with one assist. You know he takes pride in (scoring) so you see those things, so let's take a little bit of pressure off him. Let's put him down in a position to take a little pressure off him, which helped him last night. He looked good on that line,” said Bowness.
“Plus, when you're up on that line, you're playing against different people on the opposition. You're playing against the other third pairing D and you're playing mostly against the fourth line guys, so that takes a little bit of pressure off as well. You're not out against the top couple of lines and top couple of D pairings and that gave him a little bit more room last night as well."
LINEUP CHANGES FOR SUNDAY
Bowness said that Nate Schmidt will be coming back into the lineup to face Arizona on Sunday afternoon and it will once again be Connor Hellebuyck starting in goal.
