Practice Notebook - Feb. 13, 2023

WINNIPEG -As long as he wakes up on Tuesday feeling good, Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo will return to action when the Jets take on the Seattle Kraken.
He's missed three games with a lower-body injury, but used every bit of the 11-day player break to heal up as quickly as he could.
"I went back home for the break, so I saw my guy there that takes care of me in the summer," said DeMelo. "Like the guys were saying, the break, as much as it was needed, it definitely felt long. Happy to hopefully be back at it tomorrow."
In Monday's 45-minute practice, DeMelo's first in a regular jersey after skating in non-contact since Thursday, he was skating alongside Brenden Dillon. Prior to his injury, DeMelo's partner on the blue line had been Josh Morrissey, but head coach Rick Bowness wants to keep Morrissey and Neal Pionk together a little bit longer.

"When we started the season, those were the pairings, Bowness said. "So that's an easy move to make as the game goes on. Neal has played a lot with Mo, Mel has been a huge part of Mo's year. Practice is one thing, we'll see what it looks like tomorrow."
As a duo, DeMelo and Dillon have given up less high-danger chances at five-on-five than they've helped to produce (20-19, according to Natural Stat Trick's five-on-five metrics), but that sample comes from just 79:21 of ice time together.
Regardless of who he plays with, DeMelo hopes to continue his strong play when he jumps back into the line-up. He had points in two of his last three games before his injury, and his 16 points this season have him just six shy of his career-high, set in 2018-19 with Ottawa.
"I've had conversations with guys on where I can improve certain things," said DeMelo. "I think our style of play this year has impacted everybody's offensive numbers. When you put all those things together, I think you were going to get, hopefully a better year."
While adding that offensive element to his game, DeMelo hasn't lost the reliability in the defensive zone either. He's about as defensively sound as defencemen come in the National Hockey League, and even joked that he's the common denominator between two defencemen - Thomas Chabot of the Ottawa Senators in 2019, and Morrissey in 2023 - making it to their first All-Star games.
"That's the biggest brag you'll hear out of me, I guess," he laughed. "I take a lot of pride in just being a good teammate. For my partner, for the whole team. To see a guy have success that you're playing with, it brings me a lot of joy."

And having DeMelo back in the line-up brings his teammates joy, same goes for his head coach.
"He's not flashy. He keeps the game simple and he's very, very reliable," said Bowness. "When you have a reliable partner, you're able to take a few more gambles offensively, which we've encouraged everyone from Day 1. That's Mel, he's just very steady, very secure."
LINE RUSHES
With Dylan DeMelo back in the fold, the Jets line rushes looked like this on Monday:
Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-Perfetti
Barron-Lowry-Appleton
Maenalanen-Stenlund-Kuhlman
Gagner, Jonsson-Fjallby
Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-DeMelo
Samberg-Schmidt
Stanley-Capobianco
Hellebuyck, Rittich

In order to make room on the roster for DeMelo, the Jets had to make the tough decision to put Axel Jonsson-Fjallby on waivers.
"Axel has done everything we've asked him to do," said Bowness. "He's been a great teammate, he's helped us get to where we are today but we're only allowed to have 23 bodies. It's an unfortunate move that we're forced to make. We're hoping we don't lose him, selfishly."
EHLERS ESCAPES
Nikolaj Ehlers took a puck off the side of the head in the late stages of practice and left the ice immediately.
He was able to skate off under his own power shortly after being hit with the deflected pass.
Bowness anticipates that the forward will be just fine.
TEAM BONDING
The entire team watched Super Bowl LVII in a unique setting - on one of the frozen rivers in Winnipeg.
Ehlers was one of the players that captured the moment on his Instagram story, as the players and significant others took in the game on the river in a pop-up restaurant experience called Raw:almond.