Heinola solid in season debut with Moose

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This article was published 21/11/2024 (305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 20 minutes of ice time. A shot on goal and a couple of bumps and bruises to mark his official welcome.

All in all, it was a successful season debut for Ville Heinola.

The Winnipeg Jets’ Finnish-born defenceman, who is in the final stages of working back from a second ankle surgery, was given an opportunity to work in every phase in the first of a two-game conditioning stint with Manitoba Moose, which ended in a 5-0 loss to the Chicago Wolves at the downtown rink on Thursday.

A rare 10:30 a.m. puck drop before a raucous crowd of more than 5,000 — predominantly school kids — was an unusual setting for Heinola’s first taste of game action, to say the least.

There were no eyebrow-raising plays, and there were times when he felt like a player who was playing his first game in seven months, but an overall uneventful outing might’ve been the best-case scenario given what he’s been through the last two seasons.

The one blip on his stat line was finishing minus-one after being on the ice for two goals, one on the penalty kill and one at even strength.

“Obviously, it was nice to play again,” Heinola said. “That felt great. I think it took me a couple of periods to get into the game but in the third, my body was feeling pretty good and it was nice to play.”

“Conditioning is not there yet. Obviously, I haven’t played for seven months so it’s a long time, but, like I said, in the third period I started feeling pretty good.”

Heinola will get another run when the Moose host the Wolves again on Saturday at 2 p.m.

He explained what getting back into the swing of things looks like.

“I think it’s just getting used to those game situations,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you are doing to practice, it’s not a game and you just have to do some things a little different in the game. And obviously, it’s a little faster, too. So just getting used to the speed, and getting my conditioning and skating back.”

The 2019 first-round pick has been skating for a month already, so the Jets want his ramp-up period to be quick to get him into an NHL game sooner rather than later. Winnipeg begins a season-long six-game road trip on Friday and the plan is for Heinola to meet the team in Minnesota on Sunday.

He started Thursday’s contest and it didn’t take him long to get involved, as he teed up a hard slap shot from the top of the circle on his second shift. The Moose went scoreless in three power play opportunities, but Heinola saw some important action on the top unit.

“I thought Ville was fine,” said Moose head coach Mark Morrison. “I thought he got better every period. Looked a little more comfortable with the puck every period. But I think the game did what it was supposed to for Ville. I think he got enough puck touches and enough D-zone, so it was good for him.”

Heinola looked like he had done enough to make the Jets opening-night roster last season before he fractured his ankle in the final preseason game. He never got another chance with the big club, instead playing 41 games in the American Hockey League, where he tallied a career-high 10 goals and 17 assists.

There was optimism he would compete for an NHL job again this year, but an infection and another surgery to the same ankle would stymie those hopes on the second day of camp.

“It’s been a tough two years for him. I’m probably his biggest fan here,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said Wednesday.

Arniel later joked he told Morrison to give Heinola a hefty 30-minute workload while he was with the AHL club. Thursday didn’t yield those numbers, but there was still plenty of work for the 23-year-old.

“I don’t know exactly, but I’m sure it was in the 20-minute mark,” Morrison said.

“I think he played what he could handle.”

Fellow blue-liner Simon Lundmark has been paired with Heinola a lot over the last four years, and they spent the majority of last season matched with each other. Lundmark said he didn’t say much to his playing partner in the lead-up to the game, noting his experience would allow him to succeed.

“It’s fun to be back playing with him and good to see him back playing,” said Lundmark.

“I think he played great. We all know he’s really good with the puck, solid defensively, so I think he did a really good job.”

Morrison, whose club dropped to 5-9 on Thursday and occupies last place in the Central Division, said Heinola’s involvement in his second game will look a lot like it did in the first.

“I think it’ll look the same. I mean, he ran the No. 1 power-play unit, he plays 20-plus minutes in all situations and I think it was what it was,” he said.

“I think Ville got everything he could out of that game.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam