You knew the Winnipeg Jets were winning this game as soon as the team submitted their lineups.
The only question was by how much.
Well, five goals as it turns out, as some of the best players the Jets have to offer had their way with the bottom end of the Edmonton Oilers training roster.
After playing all five members of their first power play unit at home in Monday’s split-squad game against the Calgary Flames, the Oilers didn’t send any of their top-six forwards and only one of their defencemen from last season, Brett Kulak, to Manitoba on Wednesday.
Aside from Mattias Janmark, Connor Brown and Derek Ryan, it was a whole bunch of training-camp hopefuls trying to get noticed.
The Jets countered, as the home teams usually do, with 15 regulars. Nik Ehlers, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey and Vlad Namestnikov (five of their top six scorers from last season) were among the Jets attackers.
So the lopsided 6-1 loss isn’t any great surprise. Nor does it matter.
It was close for a while, 1-0 after 20 minutes, but the Jets pulled away with three goals in the second period before coasting to the win. Winnipeg scored twice on the power play and once short-handed.
Counting the two split-squad losses to Calgary (6-3 and 6-1) the Oilers have been outscored 18-5 in their last three pre-season games. Not that that matters, either.
Defenceman Neal Pink led the way for Winnipeg with a goal and three assists while Kaapo Kahkonen, who split his time between San Jose and New Jersey last year, went the distance in net for the Jets. … Brown scored the only goal for Edmonton, breaking the shutout with 3:28 left in the game. Matt Savoie, who came over from Buffalo in the Ryan McLeod trade, hit the crossbar in the third period and had a couple of good looks for the Oilers.
Stuart Skinner made his pre-season debut, stopping 23 of 27 shots in 40 minutes of work before giving way to Collin Delia, who spent last season with the AHL Manitoba Moose. … With four games down and four to go, Darnell Nurse still hasn’t played in the pre-season yet as he recovers from a core ailment.
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