Jets look for momentum from revamped power play

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This article was published 05/10/2023 (732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There were many times last season where Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness sounded like a broken record.

Over and over and over again, the veteran bench boss bemoaned missed opportunities on the power play. Despite no shortage of star-studded talent, they would come up empty far too often. The most common theme to his complaints: Too many cute passes. Not enough shots on net.

His frustration was often palpable, from vigorous head shaking, glass slapping and that all-too-familiar “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed” look where he’d either fold his arms or put his hands on his hips.

By the time it was over in April, only nine teams clicked at a worse rate than Winnipeg’s 19.3 per cent while playing with an extra man at the ice. That’s simply not good. Not even close.

Now, a fresh start and a clean slate. And, Bowness hopes, a more focused approach to such a key area of the game, one that is often the difference between success and failure.

“You want your power play, if they don’t score, to give you some momentum. There were too many games last year where our power play didn’t give us that,” Bowness said Thursday.

Not surprisingly, the Jets have spent considerable time working on special teams during training camp. Gabriel Vilardi and Alex Iafallo, who came over from the Los Angeles Kings as part of the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade, now find themselves on the top power-play unit along with staples Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and all-star defenceman Josh Morrissey.

Although they’ve only had a handful of preseason games to work with — including Thursday’s finale at Canada Life Centre against the Ottawa Senators — Bowness is optimistic.

“(Vilardi) gives us a totally different look, having a right-hand shot down by the net, it does. It gets Mark on the half wall where he wants to be and they all like Alex (Iafallo) in the bumper position there,” said Bowness, who quickly found himself repeating a familiar talking point.

“They have to get more pucks on the net,” he continued.

“They’re moving it really well but until you see what Gabe looks like down there and again, you kind of have to let it go, you got to see what works, what doesn’t work, how he fits in, how he utilizes every other player. Again we said from day one, he’s very smart, good down around the net, hangs onto pucks so you got to give that a little time to see how that works.”

The second power-play unit is expected to feature Cole Perfetti, Nino Niederreiter, Nikolaj Ehlers (who missed all six pre-season games with neck spasms), Neal Pionk and either Nate Schmidt or Ville Heinola.

In a perfect world, there would quickly be some healthy competition developing between PP1 and PP2 for precious playing time.

“I think it’s very important. You’ve got to have two good units to push each other, to be competitive with one another,” Niederreiter said. “I think whoever is probably hotter at that moment is probably going to start the power play. I think that’s something that’s very important.”

One thing is clear: when the curtain rises on the 2023-24 campaign next Wednesday in Calgary, you can expect the usual early-season crackdown by the men in stripes, which usually results in a special-teams surge in the first few weeks.

“Every year the refs are likely calling everything right at the beginning. And then they start getting looser towards the end. And then playoffs is…” Niederreiter said, pausing for thought.

“The Wild West?” a reporter suggested.

“Exactly,” Niederreiter replied with a smirk. “So you’ve got to take advantage of that. Power play is very important, and it’s something you have to focus on.”

A team that can click early and make its opponent pay for its sins can really get on a roll.

“You want everything going. You want to have a good start and the power play is a big part of that,” said Bowness.

“Regardless if the puck goes in the net, you want that power play to go out and create some offence and give us some momentum, something we can build off of. It’s like penalty killing, your penalty killers go out there and do a great job, that gives you momentum. Your power play gives you momentum. We want to get off to a great start and usually specialty teams are a big part of that.”

When they found themselves in the sin bin last year, the Jets were one of the best in the NHL. Only six squads had a better success rate than their 82.4 per cent, and Winnipeg has been rock-solid in that department during the preseason.

“It looks good. Arnie (associate coach Scott Arniel) does a great job with that as you know and the players that we’re using did a lot of this last year,” said Bowness.

The exception is the third player to come over from the Kings, Rasmus Kupari, who will join the likes of Adam Lowry, Morgan Barron and Mason Appleton as PK regulars. Iafallo and David Gustafsson could get some work there as well.

“Kupari has stepped right in, very smart player, he’s winning faceoffs and we’re getting the puck down the ice and that’s a big help,” said Bowness, who noted pre-season is a tough time to get an accurate reflection on the state of your special teams.

“Our penalty killers are doing a good job and nobody’s power play would be on fire at this point right? Everybody is trying different things, trying different looks. But the structure of our penalty killing, the effectiveness of it has been very good.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg