WINNIPEG \u2013 We\u2019ve heard the same message from Winnipeg Jets coaches and players since the opening days of training camp: it was a long summer.<\/p>\n
Well, summer is officially over.<\/p>\n
The regular season finally arrives tonight, with the Jets opening their schedule on home ice against the Boston Bruins at Canada Life Centre (7 CT, TSN 3, 680 CJOB\/Power 97).<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. Obviously, the shorter camp,\u201d said Scott Arniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cVeterans only playing two exhibition games, you have to pile in a lot of stuff when it comes to sort of the details, systems and structure \u2013 all that stuff. So, felt we checked all those boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0This will be the third season for Arniel as head coach, he\u2019s coached and played in numerous season openers and the excitement that comes with opening night never gets old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of different that we\u2019re sitting and watching all of these games here up until we play on Friday and then, it\u2019s three (games) in four nights and four in six,\u201d said Arniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut opening night is always fun. It\u2019s always exciting to get the season off and started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnipeg has two players preparing to play in their first NHL game, 2026 first-round selection Viggo Bj\u00f6rck and 2020 sixth-round selection Tyrel Bauer. There have been 19 players in franchise history to record a goal in their\u00a0NHL debut, with Parker Ford being the most recent (Jan. 30\/25). For Josh Morrissey, entering his 11th full NHL season, that injection of youth and energy is more than welcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always new faces, and this year there\u2019s a few more young faces, guys just kind of breaking into the league,\u201d said Morrissey.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s exciting. Those guys bring a ton of energy, and you can\u2019t help sit next to a younger guy and remember your first few games and first full season and all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jets will open their season at Canada Life Centre for the second consecutive season and third time in the last five seasons. They hold an all-time record of 25-14-4 in their home openers, with a points percentage of .500 or higher in all three iterations of the franchise.<\/p>\n
It seems like everyone else has played at least one game since the season kicked off on Tuesday minus the Jets. The Bruins come into the Manitoba capital having won their opener 3-0 over the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing Boston’s already played one, the attention to detail, I think \u2014 you’re watching some of the early games. You still see some of the mistakes, some of the rust, and it’s about getting up to speed,\u201d said Adam Lowry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s about limiting those mistakes. Execution as much as we can and playing fast. That’s gonna be something we want to focus on all year. Boston’s a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no question the value that a healthy Lowry will bring to the Jets this season. He entered the 2024-25 season recovering from hip surgery, returned to the lineup in November and it took him awhile to get up to speed. He skates into this campaign healthy and ready to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a good summer, putting a lot of work, and I’m looking forward to getting back out there and feeling like myself. I still feel like a kid at heart,\u201d said Lowry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to play the sport I love for a living. So, but yeah, it’s crazy to think that I’ve been in the league. This is coming into my 13th season, my 14th year pro, and Viggo was four at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season, Kyle Connor extended his NHL record goal streak in opening games to eight consecutive seasons. He has a chance to further extend his record on Friday night, looking to find the back of the net in his ninth consecutive season opening game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2013 We\u2019ve heard the same message from Winnipeg Jets coaches and players since the opening days of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-917941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}