WINNIPEG – Five preseason games in the books, one to go. The 2024-25 season is less than a week away for the Winnipeg Jets and for veteran players like Josh Morrissey, it’s starting to get exciting.
“There's one game left. Usually, most teams dress close to their opening night roster. And I don't know what the plan is here, but you can feel the regular season right around the corner,” said Morrissey after Thursday’s practice.
“So, I'd say the sort of dog days, if you will, hopefully the coaches aren't watching this interview. But that was maybe last week. So, I feel like now these last couple days, getting close to opening night, guys start to get excited.”
The Jets star defenceman has played in two preseason games, both at home. The Oilers didn’t bring Leon Draisaitl or Connor McDavid, and the Flames left Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich back in Alberta. Morrissey would like to see some NHL competition before things get real on October 9th in Edmonton.
“Hopefully an NHL lineup tomorrow (in Calgary). NHL players, and some top end guys, we haven't really seen a lot of top six players so far in my two games. So, it felt for me, it was my first game and then a week off before the next game,” said Morrissey.
“It almost felt like last night was the first one again, but started to settle in as it went on, and now I'm excited to get two games in three days here, and hopefully an NHL team on both sides tomorrow.”
Another reason for excitement in the Manitoba capital is the new look power play. It connected in the first period as Nikolaj Ehlers finished off a beautiful passing play. The man advantage had numerous other scoring chances as the night wore on against Calgary.
“I’m sure you guys have seen it. There’s a lot more pace to it, a lot more structure in the sense that once we have the puck, it’s obviously you’ve got to make plays, but we know where to expect each other, it makes the reads a lot easier,” said Kyle Connor.
“Guys are supporting each other. It’s been really fun. Obviously, it’s just beginning to build towards it, but we’ve laid the foundation.”
The Jets lost some games last season because the power play couldn’t deliver in big moments. In the end, Winnipeg was 22nd in the league with the man advantage at 18.8%. Baffling when the team has the likes of Mark Scheifele, Gabe Vilardi, Nikolaj Ehlers, Morrissey and Connor.
However, it is not about last season anymore.
"I'm not going to compare us so much to last year. I think I'm going to be more about what I saw from the start of camp to now is the details. Picking up on the details. Whether that's faceoffs or entries, when the puck gets to a certain spot, if it gets to Mo (Morrissey) at the top, the other guys have motion and movement that they have to do,” said head coach Scott Arniel.
“That's part of it. We started seeing it in the first game and we saw it again last night. Some of the finished product is nice to see. You're going to get heavier and heavier competition. Tomorrow is going to be another big test against I'm sure close to Calgary's top line.”
The Jets made some cuts on Thursday and there are more to come. Ordinarily, the final preseason contest is where you see the opening night roster, but Arniel and the coaching staff haven’t decided what it will look like tomorrow night in Calgary.
“We'll talk as an organization here in the next couple of hours and move forward. That doesn't mean that what you see tomorrow is what you're going to see next week,” said Arniel.
“Most of the top end veterans are going to be there because they need their reps to get going and to continue to get ready for next week."
INJURY UPDATES
David Gustafsson and Jaret Anderson-Dolan did not take part of practice today and their availability for Friday’s game remains to be seen.
"JAD, he got hit with a shot there, I think it was on the penalty kill or five-on-five he got hit. Just pretty sore, swollen up today,” said Arniel.
“Gus, actually good news. He'll be OK. Just going day-to-day, I think, to see where he's at each day. More than likely, both of them will be out for tomorrow night but we'll see if they skate in the morning."
