3 Things: Chemistry, consistency and a healthy Niederreiter

Perfetti excited to join 55 and 81
Cole Perfetti is embracing the opportunity to play alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, with the young forward looking forward to seeing what kind of chemistry he can build with Winnipeg’s top offensive players. The 24-year-old has played on a line with Scheifele and Connor before just not together, during Perfetti’s first season he skated with either Connor and Pierre-Luc Dubois or Scheifele and Blake Wheeler. With training camp being much shorter, the time to build chemistry is limited.

“So far, last two days, it's been a lot of fun playing with Scheif and KC, and just trying to build off them,” said Perfetti.

“Though obviously they played a lot together, so just trying to create some chemistry a little bit with them, get see their tendencies, and get comfortable playing with them.” 

Lowry line looking to get back to form
The Jets will be looking for their veteran checking line to rediscover the consistency that has made it such an important part of their identity. Adam Lowry and his linemates will be counted on for reliable two-way play, tough minutes and secondary offence. Last season, Lowry was slowed down by hip surgery and the recovery afterwards and not having his line at the level it has shown made it challenging for the Jets to be the defensive juggernaut they were the previous two years.

Lowry is with Morgan Barron and Brad Lambert to start camp, and Scott Arniel sees potential in this trio.

“We're putting a big opportunity on (Lambert) now. It's obviously, we've talked to him here about, he's got to recognize who he's going to be on the ice with. But he also, on the other side, is the turnovers,” said Arniel.

“When the puck goes the other way, his skillset now comes into play. Seen some other teams around the league do this with two veterans and put a young guy in there and kind of groom them along.”

The Jets captain really liked what he saw from Lambert when he was called up after the trade deadline last spring.

“He was taking pucks to the net, getting to the inside and using his speed to create, and made some big plays for us coming down the second half. So we're expecting him to take a step forward this year,” said Lowry.

“And Bear seems to continually grow his game, seems to continually be getting better. He's another guy I expect will take another big step forward. It's definitely intriguing. I think once we get into games and get a feel for it we'll have a better idea of what it looks like.”

Niederreiter hoping for a healthy season
After dealing with injury issues last season, Nino Niederreiter is hoping those troubles are behind him. The veteran winger provides the Jets with size, experience and a physical presence, and a healthy Niederreiter could be an important piece of Winnipeg’s lineup. Niederreiter did become the first Swiss born player to reach 1000 games in the National Hockey League and represented his country at the Olympics but because of knee issues, he was not the force Jets fans have grown accustomed to.

“Yeah, definitely. I mean, obviously, I wasn't happy at all with my year that I had last year. Obviously, there were still a lot of cool milestones I had a chance to hit, but at the same time, that got overshadowed,” said Niederreiter.

“Obviously, with the injury, the knee injury and with the surgery and everything. So, it was definitely not my year. So, I'm looking forward to have a bounce back year and try to be the best version of myself.”