Rick Bowness Post-skate The Winnipeg Jets will get a big boost on Saturday evening for their game against the Ottawa Senators. Forward Gabriel Vilardi will be back in the lineup in hopes of helping Winnipeg jump back into the winning column on Saturday. "I'm playing," he said matter-of-factly, following his team's practice on Friday afternoon. Having missed various bouts with injury over the course of the 2023-24 season, the 24-year-old called it 'The Gabriel Vilardi Fortune' when speaking with reporters on Friday afternoon. "Couldn't figure it out," he said when asked of the source of the injury, while indicating he tested negative for Mono. "Didn't get an answer on that and I don't think I ever will in terms of why it got so big. That's my answer for that." Vilardi has been out of the lineup with an upper-body injury since February 29, which later turned into an enlarged spleen - something he has learned all about over the past couple weeks. "Yeah, it was a very weird first week when you’re figuring out what was going on," he laughed. "A lot of different symptoms and not a lot of answers. Spent a lot of time in MRI machines CT scans that type of stuff. So yeah, it was weird, but figured it out eventually and now we're here." In 38 games this season, Vilardi has 16 goals and 30 points. His coach is more than thrilled to get his big offseason addition back into the fold for Saturday's contest. “He’s been skating really well," Rick Bowness said on Friday. "We have been very pleased with his conditioning. He is pain free. He had to get through all of that." Not only will he be rejoining his regular line mates in Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, Vilardi will also be thrown back into the team's top power play unit alongside his linemates, Sean Monahan and Josh Morrissey. Despite getting back into action, Bowness warned that Vilardi will be on a short leash in terms on his usage throughout the game. "If he felt fine then he will play tomorrow. Will he play a regular shift? No, because he has missed a lot of time. We are going to have to watch his icetime and the length of his shifts and everything else, especially in the first period. We will definitely monitor him very closely, but he is definitely in." Winnipeg is currently on a 0-4-1 slide and is risking falling out of the Central Division's top-three clubs, standings-wise.
