Not an ideal situation for Winnipeg as they are already without their top defensive forward in Adam Lowry and now will go forward without one of the best defensive defencemen.
“Unfortunate. He's a big part of our hockey team. But we've asked guys to step up before, and this is all part of that battle. Guys battling for jobs,” said Arniel.
“And like I said whether that's in practice or the exhibition games. Every day you're doing something, you're being evaluated, and here we go. Now we got opportunities.”
Last season, Samberg blocked a Steven Stamkos shot while killing a penalty in Nashville and broke his foot, he missed 21 games and the Jets went 11-8-2 without the 26-year-old. As Arniel mentioned, a door has opened for others.
“Yeah, for sure. I think we showed that last season, when Sammy broke his foot there,” said Haydn Fleury.
“And, just the rest of us just, just have to step up, absorb a little bit more of a load. And just do what we do best.”
Connor Hellebuyck was supposed to start the next two preseason games against Minnesota and Calgary. The Vezina and Hart winner was on the ice warming up before practice and then suddenly left, Arniel said Hellebuyck didn’t feel quite right and did not commit to Hellebuyck starting Tuesday night.
When practice did get underway, there was another surprise as Arniel had put his lines in a blender and mixed things up.
