{"id":919633,"date":"2026-10-03T23:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T23:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919633\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T23:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T23:36:09","slug":"winnipeg-jets-rookie-viggo-bjorck-overcomes-pregame-jitters-to-turn-in-solid-nhl-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919633\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Jets rookie Viggo Bj\u00f6rck overcomes pregame jitters to turn in solid NHL debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The anticipation surrounding Viggo Bj\u00f6rck<\/a>\u2019s NHL debut had been building throughout the off-season \u2013 for both fans in Winnipeg and the 18-year-old himself.<\/p>\n

Now that it\u2019s come and gone, the eighth-overall pick in June\u2019s NHL draft took a moment to remember what it was like being welcomed by the Jets faithful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the crowd was pretty cool,\u201d said Bj\u00f6rck Saturday after practice. \u201cA lot of people were up on their feet chanting the whole game. It was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite some pregame jitters, Bj\u00f6rck didn\u2019t look like it was his first NHL game, playing 15:42.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely had quite a bit of nerves going into the game, but I felt like the more you play, and once you get a couple shifts in and get a chance to get some physical contact, the adrenaline comes in and you just start playing,\u201d said Bj\u00f6rck.<\/p>\n

Jets head coach Scott Arniel used Bj\u00f6rck in several different scenarios in their season-opening 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins<\/a>. He centered the second line alongside Isak Ros\u00e9n and Gabriel Vilardi<\/a>, had numerous shifts on the penalty kill and had the opportunity to hop over the boards in overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cViggo looked real calm and looked like he\u2019s been in the league for a little bit,\u201d said Arniel after the game Friday. \u201cThere were a couple times where they took some runs at him, and he did a good job of sort of seeing it coming and got out of the way. But I just thought he played, for a first NHL game, he did a lot of real good things.\u201d<\/p>\n

After giving his family back in Sweden a heads-up that he would be playing in the season opener, Bj\u00f6rck\u2019s parents, Jesper and Caroline, were able to make it overseas to watch their son take his rookie lap. <\/p>\n

Missing in action was his brother Wilson Bj\u00f6rck, who had his own hockey game in the NCAA with the Colorado College Tigers. The two brothers grew up extremely close and competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI checked in how his game went and I think he played pretty good, so it\u2019s nice that he got the win,\u201d said Bj\u00f6rck. \u201cWe\u2019re very supportive. I think our dad is the same\u2026 after a good game, often he comes in with feedback, and after a bad game he tries to pump you up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after his first NHL game, Bj\u00f6rck didn\u2019t just look like someone who\u2019s been in the league for a while, he sounded like one too when asked what he\u2019s looking forward to next.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep on growing as a player and a person and get a win,\u201d said Bj\u00f6rck. \u201cUnfortunate to lose it in overtime there\u2026 I thought we had some good chances, but we\u2019ll bounce back and get the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jets will get the chance to grab their first win of the season in Detroit on Sunday at noon CT, airing on TSN3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The anticipation surrounding Viggo Bj\u00f6rck\u2019s NHL debut had been building throughout the off-season \u2013 for both fans in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,49,48,448,82,316705,74727],"class_list":["post-919633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-viggo-bjrck-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8486025","tag-winnipeg-jets-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-52"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919633","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=919633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}