WINNIPEG – Gabe Vilardi has been skating with his teammates all week but on Friday afternoon, he skated on the right side of Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor on the Jets top unit during line rushes.
A little bit later at hockey for all centre, Vilardi took his spot on the top power play unit and right away helped set up Sean Monahan for a goal. All good signs that the 24-year-old could be an option to play Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.
It looks like he has recovered from an enlarged spleen and confirmed that he will indeed play Saturday when he simply said,
“I’m playing.”
Rick Bowness followed that up with further confirmation that Vilardi will be in.
“He’s been skating really well. We have been very pleased with his conditioning. He is pain free. He had to get through all of that. And we then wanted to get him through full practice, and we had him up with __ and KC, just to get him some reps in there. And if he felt fine then he will play tomorrow,” said Bowness.
“Will he play a regular shift? No, because he has missed a lot of time. We are going to have to watch his ice time and the length of his shifts and everything else, especially in the first period. We will definitely monitor him very closely, but he is definitely in.”
Vilardi has played 38 of the 73 contests in his first season as a Jet. He has had injuries before but nothing like the spleen issue where he said he spent a lot of time in MRI machines looking for answers. Even with answers about his health, Vilardi has had to sit back and watch while the Jets have now dropped five straight games and fallen seven points back of first place Dallas in the Central. The power play that was clicking before this latest health issue, is 0-for-16 during the last five games.
“I mean, obviously, your first thought is always you want to be on the ice with a team and battling and that sucks to see the team you know, struggling and losing and you want to be out there and helping and be a part of that battle,” said Vilardi.
“So obviously, there's that aspect of it, in terms of the power play. I mean, we had a lot of good looks. Just watching the last few games, obviously we're not scoring but excited to get back out there and like I said, just be a part of that grind and feeling like I'm part of the team, just being by myself, just kind of hanging out. It's not really the best feeling, so excited for that again.”
Scheifele who has had Alex Iafallo, Mason Appleton and Vlad Namestnikov on his right side since Vilardi has been out, is happy to have the big winger back.
"For sure. To see him back and healthy and skating with the guys, it's been huge,” said Scheifele.
“He's a big part of our team, a big part of a lot of areas of our team. It's obviously awesome to see him back healthy and out there with us."
One player that was not out on the ice on Saturday was Josh Morrissey. The Jets defenceman played 29:55 against the Golden Knights and Bowness said that Morrissey had a maintenance day.
MYSTERIOUS CALL
Scheifele received a mysterious minor and misconduct for instigating a fight with Nicolas Hague coming to the defence of Namestnikov after a hit from in the Jets 4-1 loss to Vegas. The Jets centreman missed the remaining eight plus minutes with the game tied and then the Golden Knights scored three unanswered.
"I was very surprised. I didn't understand it. I think the consistency from game to game or call to call is so different. I didn't think I was going to get an instigator for that. His (Hague’s) gloves were off before mine,” said Scheifele.
“He kind of knew something was coming. Let's be honest: I'm not a tough guy. I'm just going in there to step up for a teammate and didn't think the hit was right. I didn't think it was clean. I didn't understand the whole thing, still trying to wrap my head around it.”
