Jets get their mojo back on two-game road trip
You don’t need to remind the Winnipeg Jets what happened the last time they enjoyed some home cooking.
A 6-4 loss last Monday night at Canada Life Centre left a bad taste in their mouths and is the lone blemish on an otherwise spotless record.
The 10-1-0 club will be trying to wash that disappointing tilt with Toronto away as they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday afternoon.
It’s the first of four straight games at the downtown rink for the NHL’s No. 1 team.
“What a difference a week makes,” coach Scott Arniel said following Saturday’s practice at the Hockey For All Centre.
“The biggest thing for me was our response, how we went out on the road and played a great team game for both of those games. It was throughout our lineup, everybody stepped up. It was a heck of a lot better than what we were at home in the last one.”
Indeed, the Jets brushed off the setback against the Maple Leafs by reeling off consecutive 6-2 victories in Detroit and Columbus. What changed?
“Our leadership group took off and made sure they were the best players first, and everyone else kind of jumped on board,” said Arniel.
He explained how a candid chat following the Toronto game set the table. Essentially, they discussed whether “that’s what we, as a group, want to be proud of.”
“We definitely weren’t. It was just everybody playing that much better themselves, first and foremost,” said Arniel.
“They took of their business and then as a group, that’s the biggest thing for me, is all the lines responded, all the D partners responded, obviously the goaltending. It was just a group effort and that’s a good sign for a hockey team at this time of year.”
The Jets have played five of the last six in enemy territory, so getting a chance to settle in, unpack the suitcase and get comfortable at home for the next week is a welcome development.
“It’s been a wild schedule so far,” said defenceman Dylan Samberg. “It’s gonna get even crazier coming up here, but I think all the fellows are pretty excited to be home and get to play for our home fans again.”
No offence to the teams the Jets have beaten so far, but they are about to step up in weight class over the next few weeks.
Although the Lightning are coming off a 5-3 defeat against the Minnesota Wild on Friday night, they are still 7-4-0 and led by the likes of Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman, among others.
“They’re a well-structured team and a high scoring team, so we’ve got to be prepared,” said veteran Jets forward Vlad Namestnikov, who played parts of six seasons with Tampa Bay.
“They have a lot of weapons. We don’t want to get into a back-and-forth game with them, so we’ve got to play our Winnipeg Jet hockey, defence first, and then take it from there.”
Winnipeg is the NHL’s highest scoring team with 52 goals through 11 games, and they’re also one of the stingiest defensive squads, surrendering only 26 tallies so far. Their five-on-five play erupted on this two-game road trip, with 10 combined even strength goals against the Red Wings and Blue Jackets.
“It’s a tough league to score in,” said Namestnikov, who watched linemate Nikolaj Ehlers record a hat trick against the Blue Jackets on Friday.
“We’ve got to keep to our structure. I think the main focus is on defence and then everything opens up from there. As long as we pay attention to the way we play, it will be all good.”
Connor Hellebuyck will be back in net on Sunday for the 2 p.m. puck drop after backup netminder Eric Comrie got the spot start against Columbus.
Based on how line rushes looked Saturday, it appears no other changes will be made.
The rest of the homestand includes games against Central Division foes, with Utah, the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars coming to town.
“I don’t even want to get past Sunday, but just looking at next week, we got all of our division big hitters coming in here, too,” said Arniel. “Like I’ve said for a couple of weeks, it does not get any easier and Tampa, they’re a tough, tough hockey team.
“They’ve got some top-end skilled players, guys who have (Stanley) Cup experience. It’s going to be another one of these games where we gotta be good to go right off the drop of the puck, making sure we’re like we were on the road where we had good first periods that I really liked. Need to do that again here on Sunday.”
The Jets will then play nine of the next 10 games on the road where they are a perfect 6-0-0 so far. But their opponents include some of the league’s most potent teams, including the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and the reigning Presidents Trophy winning New York Rangers.
“We’re excited for the challenge,” said Samberg. “It’s a long season but this is where it starts.”
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Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter
Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.
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