Roslovic, Perreault, and Vesalainen trio earn another look

WINNIPEG -It was only one game, and a preseason game at that, but the trio of Mathieu Perreault, Jack Roslovic, and Kristian Vesalainen earned themselves another look.
"I like that we can have two guys playing with Matty Perreault can learn from him," said head coach Paul Maurice, citing how Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor continue to learn from Blake Wheeler.
"Matty plays at the right level. Both of those other two guys being so young, we're always saying 'on the puck, play harder at a higher pace, at a higher rate.' So they have a really good veteran guy that does that. He's not the biggest guy in the league, but he plays as hard as the biggest guy."

Even though he's only 30-years-old, Perreault is the grizzled veteran of the three. But he liked what he saw from Roslovic - who he's played with before - as well as Vesalainen, who got his first taste of NHL preseason action in the 2-1 win over Minnesota on Monday.
"He's a big guy, and he's good at holding onto the pucks in the corners in the offensive zone. It's a good quality to have. It's nice to have that on our line," said Perreault. "I just try to talk to him as much as I can, and give him little details on how we play here and our system, but first impression, he looked pretty good."
Vesalainen finished with 16:08 of ice time, including 4:39 on the power play. Maurice was complimentary of Vesalainen's confidence with the puck, especially along the boards in the "heavy areas."
"That is far more important to me because that's going to happen a lot more often than anybody scoring. We want that three or four times a game over 82," said Maurice. "If he puts one in, we'll be happy for him. The details of the game, the things we start on in development camp, the things we think our forwards have to do to play the game we want to play, he was probably better at it than I expected him to be in an exhibition game. He was good there."

That board play is critical to how the Jets want to play. In the defensive zone, that work along the wall is critical to getting the puck out of the zone quickly. Offensively, it can help create separation, maintain possession, and manufacture scoring chances.
And even though Perreault is the veteran, playing on the right wing - as he did last night for the first time in his career - there is always more to learn.
"I struggled a few times with it because I've never experienced it," said Perreault. "You see even now, I'm getting older, but I'm still learning a few things. For these young guys too, it's the same thing."

Roslovic is still learning as well. He and Perreault had chemistry together during the postseason, and the 21-year-old Roslovic saw last night's game as another step in that direction. Compared to this time last season, Roslovic feels a world of difference in his confidence level.
"I was bringing up to Kristian, the difference in that one year is a lot. Just being familiar with the system and the team is something team that benefits me very well," said Roslovic.
"I think (our line) played well. I had a lot of minutes. Kristian is just getting into the swing of the NHL game. I think he's really starting to settle in."

Lines get shuffled all the time throughout the preseason - and the regular season for that matter - but Perreault does see the potential his line has.
"We have potential to score goals. We're three guys that can put up points and work hard," said Perreault. "(Roslovic) is a really good skater. I see our line as one that can produce, and definitely try to make a difference for our team trying to win games."
ICE CHIPS
The Jets won 62 per cent of the face-offs in the preseason win over the Minnesota Wild, with Perreault and Roslovic leading the way at 75 and 73 per cent respectively.
While Maurice will wait until there is a bigger sample size to determine how much stock he puts into that particular stat, he said all of his centres enjoyed the chance to go up against former teammate Matt Hendricks.
Hendricks, who played 60 regular season games and five playoff games for the Jets last season, signed a one-year contract with the Wild on July 1.
"Matty Hendricks is a pretty good face-off guy, and takes it pretty serious. There was a little extra edge there. There's no doubt about it," said Maurice. "Winning the game was nice, but everybody that got to beat Matty in a face-off got to enjoy it there for a split second.
"Matty is really well appreciated in our locker room and he's got a great personality. So every beak, barb, chirp that happened over the course of a year got brought right out last night. There were some age jokes. Ageism was big yesterday."