Vilardi missed last night’s game in Boston after not skating on Sunday or Monday morning. The Jets coach felt the 24-year-old looked better at today’s skate.
STREAKS OVER
After watching video, Bowness didn’t see anything new about last night’s loss to Boston. He reiterated that the Jets breakouts were terrible in the first two periods and that the Jets started to move the puck better and put more pressure on the Bruins in the third.
The 4-1 loss saw the end of the 34 game without allowing more than three goals and a 14-game streak of giving up two or less. A good sign that the Jets continue to think defence first even as the season is past the midway point.
“If you want to win in this league you have to play at a high level on a consistent basis. It’s a tough league as we all know,” said Bowness.
“It’s the two points that matter. The streak is second, the points is what matters. We’re disappointed about not getting the two points more than the streak ending.”
ALL-STAR BOWNESS
At the start of February, Bowness will be back in Toronto as one of the four coaches for the All-Star Game. He will be joined by his wife Judy and the rest of his family.
“We’re looking forward to it. Again, they go there as representatives of the organization, and we all know that. It starts with the ownership group. Great ownership there. They give us all the resources we need, and they treat their players first class,” said Bowness.
“Chevy (Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff) and his staff, the scouts put the pieces in place. It all goes back to the players and how hard they work consistently. Very few games where we talk about what we just talked about; we’ve played very few of those games.”
