Whole lotta Little

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This article was published 19/12/2015 (3610 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Very few NHL players score in bunches more often than Winnipeg Jets centre Bryan Little.

A three-point night (2g, 1a) for Little in a 5-2 Jets win over the New York Rangers at the MTS Centre Friday night was Little’s 10th multi-point game this season, which puts him in a tie for fourth in the league in that category.

If he keeps up this pace, Little would finish the season with 25 multi-point games, which would shatter his previous career-best — 13 in 2013-14.

Little also had a dozen multi-point games last season and he currently sits third in that category on the all-time franchise list — his 85 multi-point games are behind Vyacheslav Kozlov (98) and Ilya Kovalchuk (138).

So what is it about certain games that just seem to bring out the best in the 28-year-old?

“I think confidence has a lot to do with it,” Little said Saturday at the MTS Centre.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard the term ‘goal legs’ but when you score a goal, it seems like you can find a new gear. You get that confidence going and you feel good out there.

“You always try to be a consistent player, but sometimes when things go well early in a game, you’re going to have a good night.”

Little wasn’t the only one on the Jets’ top line to have a good night — linemate Blake Wheeler tied a career-high for points in a game with four assists.

No stranger himself to big multi-point nights, Wheeler said Saturday he savours them when they happen because the rest of the time it’s a struggle.

“It happens once in awhile,” Wheeler said Saturday of his big night. “The majority of the games you’re fighting tooth and nail to get anything going. And once in awhile, you get them to go early, you feel good about it and the game slows down and things seem to be clicking on all cylinders.

“You have nights like that, you want to take advantage of it. You want to try and capitalize on the chances you’re getting because they don’t happen very often.”

Wheeler, Little and Jets captain Andrew Ladd, who had a goal and an assist, combined for nine points against the Rangers after having combined for just four points in their previous four games.

It’s been a bit of a theme for the Jets lately. Prior to Friday, it had been the second line of Mathieu Perreault, Mark Scheifele and Drew Stafford who’d been scoring in bunches.

The trio combined for a nine-point night Dec. 10 in a win over the Columbus Blue Jackets and they had a five-point night in a loss to the St. Louis Blues Tuesday.

So what’s with all the scoring in bunches? And why does Little seem to be better than most at it? “His job never changes,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said Saturday. “They go out against the other team’s best and he’s a conscientious player in that.

“Maybe sometimes it’s just you hit a game and that other team’s line is off. Maybe there’s real consistency in his splurges and it’s just that when the other team’s top line is on, there’s not going to be as many chances… and if they’re off, they take advantage of it.”

While no one is ever going to complain about getting a nine-point night out of a line, the Jets could also use a lot more consistency in their play. They have yet to win more than two games in a row all season and they’ve won two in a row just twice since the end of October.

That’s a problem for a team still recovering from a 4-9-1 run in November and that needs to start posting wins in bunches to claw its way out of the Central Division basement and back into playoff contention.

“(We need to) string together some wins. It’s easier said than done,” said Little. “It’s kind of been one of the problems for us this year — we have a good game, we get a win and the next game we kind of relax again and the other team takes advantage of that.

“We’re trying to get better at that and that’s one area we need to work on. We need to learn how to play after we have a good game and after we win. That’s how you string together some wins.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek