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![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3753482_web1_CP169852619.jpg\")
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John Woods \/ THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
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Winnipeg Jets\u2019 Neal Pionk (right) celebrates last season with then teammate Nikolaj Ehlers. Pionk is looking forward to getting into his former teammate\u2019s head when Ehlers rolls into town Friday with the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet, not yet. I don\u2019t want him to figure it out. But he knows. He knows it\u2019s coming,\u201d Pionk warned.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll get his chance Friday night as Ehlers and his Carolina Hurricanes return to town for a regular-season matchup that has likely been circled on plenty of calendars, including those of the players involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be fun. Might have to give him a cross-check or two,\u201d Pionk said of Ehlers, who played 719 regular-season and playoff games with the Jets over 10 seasons before departing last summer in free agency.<\/p>\n
Thing is, as much as he was joking around, there\u2019s plenty of truth to what he says. It would surprise absolutely no one if Pionk \u2014 who plays a hard-nose style of game \u2014 didn\u2019t push the boundaries of the NHL rule book at some point while trying to contain the guy known as \u201cFly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Logan Stanley can be added to that list, too. The six-foot-seven Jets blue-liner \u2014 no stranger to physicality \u2014 said there will be no free passes should he catch Ehlers in the trolley tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be weird seeing him on the other side. Nikky was a fan favourite in the dressing room and good friend. But once the puck drops it will be business,\u201d said Stanley.<\/p>\n
Which begs the question: How awkward is it to face someone you once went to battle with \u2014 someone you spent years beside on charter flights, in hotels, gyms and restaurants across the continent? Is there an unwritten code for situations like this?<\/p>\n
A tour around the Jets dressing room quickly reinforced a common theme: It\u2019s not in a professional athlete\u2019s DNA to put personal relationships ahead of professional pursuits. Or, to put it more bluntly, self ahead of team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be weird seeing him on the other side. Nikky was a fan favourite in the dressing room and good friend. But once the puck drops it will be business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone gets it. You can go make up after the game. But in those 60 minutes, everyone knows the job at hand,\u201d said Tanner Pearson, who might face more ex-teammates than any other member of the Jets these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone is grown up enough that when you go into a game, no matter how good of friends you are, you\u2019re still trying to come out on the winning side and help your team win. So be it whatever happens on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just look at the 4 Nations Face-Off last winter in which players from Canada and the U.S. repeatedly dropped the gloves with each other in their round-robin game. This, despite the tournament happening during the middle of an NHL season with skaters from the same teams \u2014 such as Josh Morrissey, Kyle Connor and Connor Hellebuyck \u2014 on opposing sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to try to do everything you can to win,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of our breed, right? You put everything on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pearson, now 33, broke into the league in 2013 with the Los Angeles Kings, who drafted him 30th overall a year earlier. He spent parts of six seasons in L.A., winning a Stanley Cup as a rookie, before being dealt to Pittsburgh midway through the 2018-19 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still remember my first time going back there after the trade. That was definitely weird. (In the pre-game warmup) you had pucks flying across centre ice, with guys shooting me in the foot. Everybody was screwing with me,\u201d Pearson recalled, singling out Dustin Brown as the main perpetrator.<\/p>\n
One of the videos saved on Pearson\u2019s phone shows him shoving Tyler Toffoli \u2014 a former Kings teammate and one of his best friends \u2014 during the heat of battle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a reminder that I bullied him,\u201d said Pearson.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Karl DeBlaker \/ The Associated Press Files<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Nikolaj Ehlers became a member of the Carolina Hurricanes in free agency this year after over 10 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n After stops in Vancouver, Montreal, Vegas and now Winnipeg, Pearson has grown accustomed to seeing familiar faces on the other side.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably the longer you\u2019re in the league, the more it becomes a (normal) thing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s always fun when you\u2019re playing good buddies. That never gets old. You always try to one up each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Just last month, Utah Mammoth forward Brandon Tanev took a healthy run at Stanley, and the Jets defenceman didn\u2019t look pleased in the moment. They had just been teammates last spring after Tanev arrived from Seattle at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be weird at some points, but when the puck drops you are playing for your team and the guys in your room,\u201d said Stanley.<\/p>\n \u201cBattles like that happen. I actually went and said \u2018Hi\u2019 to him after the game and we laughed about it. In the heat of the moment I even gave him a little whack.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a regular sight to see former teammates catching up after games in the bowels of NHL arenas, the sweat on their faces barely dry. Pearson just did that last week in Vancouver with Quinn Hughes, with the pair sharing a laugh about a contested play that had occurred during the game.<\/p>\n \u201cHe thought he had me. I told him there was no way he had me,\u201d Pearson said of a scoring chance. There was a similar catch-up session earlier in the road trip with Anze Kopitar following a defeat in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s what\u2019s so special about our league. Pretty much everyone is close and gets along really well,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cYou can pretty much text anyone at any time and go grab a beer after a game, maybe golf in the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to try to do everything you can to win\u2026 It\u2019s kind of our breed, right? You put everything on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, not every reunion is warm and fuzzy. Jets forward Gabe Vilardi still harbours frustration over a collision with former Kings teammate Blake Lizotte two seasons ago that caused an MCL sprain and sidelined him for six weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played with (Lizotte) a lot. He\u2019s done a lot of little things like that,\u201d Vilardi fumed at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an awkward fall. It\u2019s someone pushing your feet out from the back, my knee gets caught under me and then he tackles me. It\u2019s that simple. You make plays like that, it\u2019s a stupid play \u2014 and it\u2019s frustrating to think that guy sits in the box for two minutes and then I have to deal with what I\u2019ve dealt with for the past month and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n Safe to say the two men don\u2019t exchange pleasantries after games these days. Like any workplace, not everyone gets along.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tThe Warm-Up<\/p>\n Winnipeg Jets Game Days<\/p>\n On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSign up for The Warm-Up<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t Athletes are fiercely competitive, which often brings out extra motivation when facing a former team or teammate.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want to give them anything. You want to make sure you play hard and hopefully they don\u2019t get anything,\u201d said veteran winger Nino Niederreiter. \u201cThere\u2019s no better feeling then scoring a goal against an old team. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s done plenty of that, especially against the Minnesota Wild, where he spent parts of six years. Niederreiter also gets a little extra spark facing former clubs Carolina, Nashville and the New York Islanders.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Jessie Alcheh \/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Winnipeg Jets\u2019 Gabriel Vilardi (13) battles for the puck against Los Angeles Kings during this season\u2019s six-game road trip. Vilardi recalled his reunion with former Kings teammate Blake Lizotte two seasons ago that ended with the Jets centre missing six weeks because of an MCL sprain.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be a very emotional time when you play an old teammate. They\u2019re friends, and many are almost part of your family,\u201d said Niederreiter, who had Hurricanes star forward Sebastian Aho over for dinner on Thursday night.<\/p>\n They\u2019ll quickly go from breaking bread together to battling against each other less than 24 hours later.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, it doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s on the opposite side. You have to play your game, and you have to play hard,\u201d said Niederreiter.<\/p>\n \u201cYou put the friendship aside, and then you see each other after the game and talk about certain moments that happened during the game, talk about how the new life is going.\u201d<\/p>\n winnipegfreepress.com\/mikemcintyre<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Mike McIntyre Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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