The Winnipeg Jets had their second scrimmage today at training camp. Here’s what happened during the Jets intrasquad game today.
For the second time during training camp leading up to the 2021 season, the Winnipeg Jets held a scrimmage. But for the first time since camp started, the Jets were on their home ice at Bell MTS Place in a game that was live-streamed for all fans to see.
Paul Maurice and the Jets coaching split the teams up into two squads, “Team White” and “Team Blue” and decided to split the game into two halves instead of two periods.
Team White featured what will be Winnipeg’s top-six forwards in 2021 along with a line of Perreault-Suess-Luoto, while Team Blue had what will probably be the Jets bottom-two lines including a line of McKenzie-Reichel-Gustafsson.
The defense looked to be split up evenly between the two squads with 15 defensemen dressed for the intrasquad game. Connor Hellebuyck was in net for blue and Laurent Brossoit was in between the pipes for White.
Game Recap
The first minutes of the game was a bit sloppy and Kyle Connor looked the most lively out of any of the players on the ice with his speed and passing.
Then just under ten minutes into the scrimmage, Joona Luoto started the scoring for Blue with a beautiful goal. He was one-on-one with the opposition defenseman while cutting across the slot on his backhand. Luoto then spun-around and released a shot on his forehand on the ice that snuck under Brossoit’s pads.
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A couple of minutes later, it looked like the coaching staff decided to give White a powerplay even though no infraction was committed. The first unit featured Laine, Connor, Scheifele, Wheeler, and Pionk but did not generate any major scoring opportunities.
Vesalainen, Ehlers, Scheifele, Stastny, and Morrissey all played on the backend of the powerplay and they did not score either. Their best chance came when Josh Morrissey ripped a one-timer from the point and it hit the crossbar.
For the next ten minutes, the teams traded chances with no one team really taking control of the game. Both goalies were called into action but did not have to make any spectacular saves and the score remained at 1-0.
At the end of one frame, that lasted around 25 minutes without stoppages, Blue went into the locker room up 1-0.
Mark Scheifele found an equalizer for blue shortly into the second frame. Nikolaj Ehlers made a nice pass to Scheifele who was on the backdoor and Scheifele stickhandled around Hellebuyck to put the puck into a wide-open net.
Shortly after, Nathan Beaulieu made a wonderful diving play on a two-on-one against Ehlers and Blake Wheeler stop a great scoring chance for White.
Mason Appleton gave blue a 2-1 lead after David Gustafsson and Skyler McKenzie went in on a two-on-one. Gustafsson slotted a great pass to McKenzie on the odd-man rush but Brossoit made a beautiful save. The rebound went to Gustafsson and he whacked the puck out of mid-air to the net. Appleton was the first one to the puck and tapped it home into the net.
After that, for the second time in the scrimmage, the Jets coaching staff decided to give White a powerplay, and this time they made it count to even the game at two. On an offensive zone entry, Stastny dropped the puck to Patrik Laine at the right point. Laine then passed it to Ehlers who was streaking to the net with no other players in sight.
Ehlers then made a quick move to his backhand and slid the puck through Hellebuyck’s five-hole for the goal. The second frame ended 2-2 and the Jets decided to break the tie with a shootout.
Both teams decided to shoot at the same time on opposition goalies and it looked like every player on each team got a turn to participate in the shootout. There is no telling which team had more goals, but there were definitely some beautiful goals.
It is fair to call this intrasquad scrimmage a tie. Today’s game was definitely interesting to watch and it will be interesting to see what roster moves the Jets make in the coming hours and days.
Winnipeg Jets Fans: What are your initial reactions to today’s scrimmage? Leave your comments below!