WINNIPEG – SPORTS – Training camp for the Winnipeg Juts is building to take-off velocity in a hurry. Jet’s Head Coach Paul Maurice says that “The standard is set. The intensity, full bore. There’s no play fighting, even between brothers.” The Jets were into Day of 3 of Training Camp on Sunday.
In a statement from the Winnipeg Jets the team says, “Their seemingly bulletproof identity was on full display in the early afternoon Sunday, as many of the veterans and a sampling of youngsters reconvened at MTS Iceplex for a scrimmage that looked anything but the show one would expect in mid September.
“When the dust settled, Team Blue emerged with a 5-4 victory after two, 25-minute run time periods and an extended look at 3-on-3 overtime.”
Andrew Copp (2), Brendan Lemieux, Jay Harrison and Dustin Byfuglien scored for Blue, while Mathieu Perreault, Nikolaj Ehlers, Paul Postma and Jacob Trouba answered back for White, but the offensive production was hardly the story. The fast-paced game had a bit of a snarl to it, with more than a handful of heated scrums, punishing hits and a relentless banter between the benches.
“After a scrimmage like that, I’m not scratching names off. I’m circling guys that probably deserve more of a look based on that,” Maurice said.
“That was great intensity. That’s a real good sign. It’s not even an exhibition game and guys were giving it everything they had. … I liked it. I wouldn’t have back-to-back scrimmages right now based on what I saw. If I had a scrimmage scheduled for tomorrow, I’d call it off. You don’t want to lose that (intensity) and that was enough.
“We didn’t scrimmage last year because we had to go over a lot of things. This year we felt it would be good to have a lot of scrimmages — the guys wanted to scrimmage to help get their timing and their hands (back). After this [weekend] we’re going to play back-to-back (Minnesota and Edmonton) and every second night until training camp is over, so there’s not as much as a coach that you can do. After tomorrow — and I won’t even run them too hard tomorrow — the real stiff part of camp
is over and we can get focused on tightening up the groups.”
