Practice report: Monahan arrives

WINNIPEG – It wasn’t just an average practice at hockey for all centre this afternoon for the Winnipeg Jets.

The fans in attendance, the players and the coaching staff all were excited to see and meet the newest Jet Sean Monahan. Monahan was brought over from Montreal during the All-Star break for a 2024 first round pick and a conditional selection from the 2027 draft.

Monahan stepped on the ice in a white jersey and off he went and admittedly he was quite nervous.

“That’s the most nervous I’ve been for a practice in a long time. You’re coming in with new people and a new facility and getting to know everything. Driving here I was nervous, and before I stepped on the ice, I was nervous,” said Monahan.

“That’s a good feeling. It’s a great place to play. I’ve loved every time I’ve been in Winnipeg and the excitement of being a Canadian kid playing in a Canadian market.”

The gift’s kept on coming when Mark Scheifele stepped on the ice in a blue jersey. Scheifele missed six games with a lower body injury and the Jets went 2-3-1 without their number one centre.  For the time being, it seems Rick Bowness will have all hands-on deck for Tuesday’s game in Pittsburgh.

“The key guys, it was unfortunate the timing of those injuries for all three guys (Scheifele, Connor and Vilardi). They’re going to need a couple of games to get the chemistry back that we saw earlier in training camp and the first couple of games,” said Bowness.

“But it’s great to have (Scheifele) back. It was clear that we missed him. And now, again, give him a couple of games, figure it out and get the chemistry going again. That’s great to have them all back right now.”

Clearly, the break came at the right time for Scheifele who used the extra days to skate, recover and get some sunshine. Now he will be where the team had him pencilled in the fall, between Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi. Adding the team’s leading scorer and Monahan will hopefully give the offence a much needed boost.

"You know, they got some chances and it was just a matter of you know, finding that chemistry again I think I went down Gabe went down for a couple games, you kind of you know it's a different matchup different everything so, it kind of got guys out of the rhythm a little bit,” said Scheifele.

“You know, it was a good time to get everyone back healthy and just kind of get that chemistry back obviously we have a lot of guys that know how to play with each other now and obviously bring in Sean and he's a guy that that just seems like he can kind of mold with anyone."

Bowness said in Toronto that Monahan was going to play between Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti.

“We talked about that but that’s clearly the spot we want to give him the look at. We’re bringing him in to play. You know Adam’s line and you know Mark’s line, so what’s left? Right,” said Bowness.

“We gotta give him his minutes and we have to give him a really good chance to help our hockey club as much as he can. That’s the spot that we’re going to slide him in. Again, it’s going to take a couple of games to get some chemistry.”

Monahan was used on the top power play unit at practice today with Scheifele, Connor, Vilardi and Josh Morrissey. The Jets power play has been struggling to find consistency and Monahan’s ability to win face-off’s and his comfortability in the bumper position are huge assets.

“It’s good for me. I’m comfortable in the bumper there,” said Monahan.

“When you’re feeling good and you have that confidence with touches and obviously surrounded by great players on the power play, you want to get them the puck and be able to relieve pressure. It’s something that I’ve done kind of my whole career.”

While the team is excited for the stretch drive with the new addition, captain Adam Lowry doesn’t want to be looking too far ahead.

“I think sometimes if you look too far ahead you kind of miss what’s going on in front of you. We know it’s a busy stretch coming up in March, but we’ve still got a full month of hockey before we even get there. There's a lot of good teams in this league that we haven’t played, and we still have to play, so we’re cited for the challenge,” said Lowry.

“We know that there’s going to be areas of our game that we’re going to need to continue improving if we want to be able to make a run at the playoffs and kind of achieve our ultimate goal. So that’s what these next 35 games are about is continuing to build as a team, continuing to get better and coming together so that come springtime with the playoffs starting we’re ready.”