The goals came fast and furious. The mistakes, too. Such is the nature of preseason hockey, even if both the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames dressed their most seasoned rosters to date on Monday night.
By the time pucks stopped being turned over, defensive assignments stopped being missed and the red light stopped flashing, the Flames had skated away with a 5-4 comeback victory over the visiting Jets.
Winnipeg had 2-0 and 3-1 leads but couldn’t hang on. They are now 2-2-1 through five exhibition contests, with just a final home game on Thursday against the Ottawa Senators remaining before the regular season begins next week.
As always this time of year, the process matters much more than the result. There was some good, some bad and some ugly on that front.
Let’s review:
1) Opportunity knocks: Jets coach Rick Bowness had originally planned to play as many regulars as possible, but injury and illness had other plans.
Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabriel Vilardi and Morgan Barron were all left at home as they dealt with a flu bug. Nikolaj Ehlers, Nate Schmidt, Declan Chisholm and Kyle Capobianco were scratched with various aches and pains.
That opened the door for some hopefuls who otherwise might not have been playing to try and make an impression against a Calgary squad that pretty much dressed its expected opening-night lineup.
Looking at Winnipeg’s depleted forward group, there are multiple players locked in a battle for what might be a single depth spot with the big club. All were involved in this one.
David Gustafsson made the strongest case, scoring a pair of goals to bring his total to three in the preseason. No, they don’t officially count, but it’s notable for a guy with just one official tally in 74 career regular-season games.
JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS David Gustafsson (right) scores on goalie Jacob Markstrom during the second period of preseason hockey in Calgary.
Gustafsson, 23, recently said he knows he has to bring more offence if he wants a regular role with the team, and he’s backed up that talk with tangible results so far.
Not to be outdone, young Parker Ford continues to be a terrific training camp story. The undrafted college free agent and non-stop ball of energy set up both of Gustafsson’s goals, and he now leads Winnipeg in preseason scoring with five points (one goal, four assists). Who would have predicted that? (Answer: Nobody).
Another bubble player, Jeffrey Viel, brought some physicality and won an offensive zone puck battle which led to a Logan Stanley point shot and a goal from another bubble player, Dominic Toninato.
Toninato, who scored in Winnipeg’s first preseason game, wasn’t supposed to be playing. He was bound for the Manitoba Moose after clearing waivers earlier in the day, but the Jets needed his services when both Scheifele and Barron couldn’t get through the morning skate.
Brad Lambert was the other one called up from the AHL club. His night was much more quiet.
2) Heinola shines: When camp began, the popular belief is that Ville Heinola was probably going to be a victim of the numbers game. He doesn’t have to pass through waivers and would likely have to go back to the Moose to exercise even more patience.
The fact is, his strong play simply can’t be ignored. Heinola, who opened the scoring with a wicked wrist shot on Monday, is making a serious case that he’s one of the best six defencemen on the team right here, right now.
JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS Ville Heinola (right) celebrates his goal with teammates Cole Perfetti (left) and Nino Niederreiter during the first period.
Sure, it might mean having to waive two of Stanley (who had an assist but also made some poor defensive reads against the Flames), Chisholm and Capobianco instead of just one in order to create a spot for Heinola. But demoting the 22-year-old at this point would counter Bowness’ own claim that jobs will be awarded on merit.
3) Perfetti pounces: With Scheifele sidelined for this one, Winnipeg’s projected No. 2 centreman actually played as the No. 1 man against Calgary, slotted in between veterans Nino Niederreiter and Alex Iafallo.
Perfetti, who survived an injury scare last week when he took an elbow to the head from Flames prospect Martin Pospisil, didn’t look out of place.
On his very first shift, he flew into the slot and ripped a hard shot that nearly beat Jacob Markstrom. A few minutes later, his beautiful backhand pass landed on the stick of Heinola who buried the shot. Then, showing he can play a little defence too, Perfetti hustled on the backcheck and intercepted a Calgary pass to thwart a scoring chance.
Perfetti will still need some work in the faceoff dot (he went 44%) but there’s much to like about his overall game.
He’s looked faster this fall, the result of some additional footwork over the summer, and is expected to start the year with Niederreiter and Ehlers, provided the Danish winger is recovered from lingering neck spasms that have kept him out of all five preseason games and likely a sixth on Thursday.
4) Hellebuyck looks human: And that’s just fine. But this game will not be on Hellebuyck’s personal highlight reel, as he seemed to fight the puck on several occasions and let in a couple of goals you’d normally expected him to stop.
JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS Connor Hellebuyck faced 46 shots against Calgary.
The three-time Vezina Trophy finalist had only played 27 minutes through the first four games, but he made up for lost time by facing 46 shots in 60 minutes against Calgary.
He was actually beaten a sixth time, but the goal ultimately was overturned due to incidental contact that came during an incredibly sloppy series of events involving pretty much every Jets player on the ice, Hellebuyck included.
Hellebuyck is expected to also start against the Senators to try and work off a bit more rust.
5) It’s preseason for the referees, too: We were reminded of that in the dying seconds of the first period when the Jets, with a well-deserved 2-0 lead, watched as Elias Lindholm chopped Brenden Dillon’s stick in half, then scored a few seconds later by the shooting lane he’d just (illegally) created for himself. Not sure how the zebras missed that one.
6) Moment of silence: Prior to the puck drop, a tribute video and moment of silence was held for Chris Snow. The 42-year-old assistant general manager of the Flames was diagnosed in 2019 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and became a major advocate for victims of the disease. Tragically, he died on Saturday.
7) Up next: The Jets are off Tuesday, and Bowness will be hoping for good news on the sick and injured front when they reconvene Wednesday for practice. Winnipeg currently has 34 players (20 forwards, 11 defencemen, 3 goaltenders) in camp and must get down to a maximum of 23 prior to the season-opener on Oct. 11 in Calgary.
Winnipeg is expected to keep 13 forwards, eight defencemen and two goaltenders, and Bowness will want as many of them as possible to play on Thursday against the Senators. Another wave of cuts should be coming shortly.
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Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter
Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.
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