Ehlers working hard to find form after missing training camp By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 5:20 PM CST Monday, Nov. 13, 2023

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This article was published 13/11/2023 (692 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets are off to a high-flying offensive start, scoring at a torrid clip that has them among hockey’s heavyweights. Several players are on pace to set new career highs, clearly benefiting from a deep talent pool and up-tempo system.

Then there’s the curious case of Nikolaj Ehlers, who might just be the biggest mystery of this young season.

Despite playing all 14 games, the skilled winger has only scored two goals and added four assists. That has the 27-year-old Dane sitting a rather shocking 10th on his own team in points, behind defensive specialists such as Mason Appleton, Adam Lowry and Dylan DeMelo. He’s barely ahead of blue-liner Brenden Dillon — who has scored twice as many goals.

Ehlers is currently tied for 234th in league scoring with some not-so-household names such as Jordan Spence, Connor McMichael, Kiefer Sherwood, Pierre Engvall, Paul Cotter and Warren Foegele.

Bizarre? You bet.

“Obviously, I haven’t been the player that I know I can be,” Ehlers said after Monday’s practice.

His candour is not surprising. Ehlers has always been his harshest critic, perhaps a product of being the son of a prolific international hockey coach. His lack of on-ice production, considering how well things are going for the team (averaging 3.5 goals per game, good for 10th in the NHL), certainly is.

“Obviously, I haven’t been the player that I know I can be.”–Nikolaj Ehlers

“It’s on myself,” Ehlers continued. “But sometimes you’ve also got to look at the opportunities.”

He began the year on a promising second line with Nino Niederreiter and Cole Perfetti, a trio that unfortunately didn’t get to skate a single second together in the pre-season. Ehlers suffered neck spasms that cost him all six exhibition games.

“You never want to miss camp, games, practices. Obviously, that sucked. I felt like I was in pretty good shape and ready to go,” Ehlers said, who received the green light just in time for the season-opener against the Flames in Calgary.

Held without a point in the first two contests, his line was disassembled by Game 3 after Gabe Vilardi suffered a knee injury. Once the shuffling was complete, Ehlers and Perfetti were joined by Vladislav Namestnikov.

Now, that trio often gets third-line minutes in five-on-five situations, with the Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Alex Iafallo unit leading the way, followed by the highly effective Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton combination.

Ehlers also found himself bumped from the top power-play unit, which had been struggling, and is now on the second unit that doesn’t get nearly as much time to produce as the big guns.

To be clear, Ehlers isn’t questioning his usage. He admits more is required from he and his linemates, as evident by this observation in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars in which he and Namestnikov set up Perfetti for one of the goals.

“I think D-zone we were good, off the rush we were good. But in the O-zone, we’re three small guys. We gotta try to hold on to the puck a little more. And play a little bigger,” said Ehlers.

“We need to hold on to the puck and support each other instead of throwing it away.”

Associate coach Scott Arniel, presented with Ehlers’ blunt assessment, cracked a smile.

“He’s staying ahead of me. Nik knows,” said Arniel. “I’ve said it to Nik probably three, four times in the last couple weeks, he’s one guy, ‘Don’t get rid of the puck. Hold on to it. Don’t try to force things.’”

Although Ehlers has declared himself 100 per cent, Arniel believes the winger is still trying to get caught up for what essentially was a lost training camp.

“It has a lot to do with timing,” he said. “I do like a lot of what they’ve been doing. Nik just has to stick with it. That line, (Perfetti) is going good, Vladdy has been going good. Just stick with it. They’re getting chances, and he’s been a part of them. You know, goal scorers, you get one and it can just snowball from there.”

The good news for the Jets is they are still off to a solid 7-5-2 start, including a 6-2-2 run which they’ll look to build off on Tuesday with a visit from the New Jersey Devils.

That’s despite the fact Ehlers has yet to really hit his stride, Vilardi has missed the last 11 games and counting, both the power play and the penalty kill remain a work-in-progress and No. 1 netminder Connor Hellebuyck is still trying to find his consistent “A” game as well.

“I thought that line (last game), they had some of our best looks, especially off the rush,” said Arniel.

“The goal was a great example of Nik not trying to force that puck into the middle. He held on to it and threw it at the net, and Fetts got the rebound. They had a couple of them, a breakaway off some real good D-zone, they had another really good look on a three-on-two. So I liked their rush game.”

Ehlers’ worst offensive year, from a point-per-game perspective, came in his rookie season of 2015-16 when he had 38 points (15 goals, 23 assists) in 72 games. Six straight years of at least 21 goals have followed, until an injury-shortened 2022-23 campaign limited him to just 45 games, in which he had 12 goals and 26 assists.

In other words, there’s every reason to expect him to shake out of his funk and revert to familiar form. Once that happens, a solid Jets squad could become even more dangerous.

“You play a team sport, you want the team to win. Obviously that’s the biggest part,” Ehlers said of still enjoying team success despite his limited contributions. “I want to win games, I want to win the Stanley Cup.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg