Feisty Jets dominate Devils

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This article was published 14/11/2023 (736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets are proving to be a real handful these days.

Just ask the New Jersey Devils, who are likely leaving town a bit shell-shocked after dropping a 6-3 decision on Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre.

The score flattered the visitors, who were clearly the second-best team on the ice.

Winnipeg built a 2-0 lead, watched New Jersey quickly tie it up, but then pulled away for good late in the second period and added plenty of insurance in the final frame.

Yes, there’s plenty to like about these Jets, and many of their best attributes were on full display in this one as the club improved to 8-5-2 on the season, including 7-2-2 in the last 11. The Devils fall to 7-6-1.

Let’s take a look at who, and what, stood out:

1) COLE PERFETTI — He’s growing up before our very eyes, folks.

Perfetti is blossoming into a bonafide top six NHL forward. The 21-year-old had a goal and a highlight-reel assist and has now scored in four straight games while registering points in seven straight games (four goals, five assists in that span).

You often hear coaches talk about players who have a high hockey IQ, and that’s absolutely the case with the 10th-overall draft pick from 2020. His vision is outstanding, as demonstrated by the patience he showed in setting up Nikolaj Ehlers for a goal late in the second period which snapped a 2-2 tie and gave Winnipeg a lead they wouldn’t surrender.

“That’s top-end. That’s great vision,” said associate coach Scott Arniel. “Everybody in the ballpark was probably thinking he was going to shoot the puck. Obviously, (Ehlers) found some open ice. Those are fun to watch, those plays.”

2) JOSH MORRISSEY — A four-assist game for Winnipeg’s All-Star defenceman gives him 14 points in his first 15 games. As of Tuesday night, only five NHL blue-liners had produced more offence so far this season (Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Victor Hedman, Filip Hronek and Erik Karlsson).

It feels like that should be a major talking point around here.

Problem is, Morrissey set the bar so high last year — a career-high 76 points in 78 games — that perhaps we take him for granted now.

“There are a lot of nights where you make a lot of great plays and nothing happens. And other nights where you are in the right place at the right time and get rewarded too,” said Morrissey. “ A couple secondary assists out there tonight, but that’s just sticking with it. When you put up six, and are working with the players we have here, sometimes you get the benefit of getting assists. It was a great win for us, and obviously nice to get rewarded with some assists out there.”

Morrissey is now the third Jets player in the past 10 days to put up four assists, as both Alex Iafallo and Mark Scheifele did it last week.

3) KYLE CONNOR — Ho-hum, another two-goal performance for Connor.

It’s become a typical night at the office, and it gives Connor 13 on the year already. He’s tied with Auston Matthews for the NHL lead in that department.

Seven of those goals, along with four assists, have come in the last four games alone. His stick is red-hot, and everything he shoots now seems destined for the back of the net.

Connor is on pace to shatter his career-high of 47 goals, which he set in the 2021-22 campaign.

“When he’s going like he is, that puck just keeps on finding him,” said Ehlers.

4) NIKOLAJ EHLERS — The flashy winger was off to a sluggish start this season, with only two goals and six points in his first 13 games.

He doubled his goal total on the night — one of them was an empty netter — and also used his hands to deliver several punches to the face of Brenden Smith, who had crushed teammate Vladislav Namestnikov with a hit from behind that originally went uncalled by officials (but was later assessed a boarding minor).

“It’s funny because I literally… My mom and sister are in town right now and earlier today I told them that my fighting days are probably over with all the injuries I’ve had, so yeah that lasted about five hours,” Ehlers said following the game.

It was his seventh NHL scrap, according to the record books.

An engaged Ehlers, as he clearly was against the Devils, is a very good sign for Winnipeg.

“This guy is a warrior; he’s a tough guy. I don’t know if he’s fought anyone in his weight class, to be honest with you,” said Morrissey.

“So there is always a little bit of ‘don’t do it’, and then he always does way better than he should, potentially. Maybe now we should drop that label as it now is his weight class. But he’s a great teammate and didn’t like the hit and he jumped right in there. That sparked the rest of the team to see a smaller guy go out there and try to stick up for one of his teammates.”

5) DEPTH SHINES BRIGHT — It’s always a risky play to deviate from the usual 12 forward/six defencemen alignment. The Jets opted to take that gamble on Tuesday, scratching David Gustafsson in favour of Logan Stanley, who had been a healthy scratch for 13 of the first 14 games. That meant just 11 forwards to go along with seven defencemen.

Unfortunately, they were quickly down to 10 forwards when Rasmus Kupari crashed into the boards awkwardly in the first period and came up favouring his right shoulder. He went straight off the ice and down the tunnel, and was ruled out for the remainder with an upper-body injury after just 1:18 of ice time.

“We’ll wait and see. He’ll get looked at a little more (Wednesday) and see where it’s at,” Arniel said following the game. “I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this happen where you go 11 and 7 and you lose a guy on the second shift of the game and now you’re down to 10 forwards. The guys stepped up huge. Guys had to play different roles, different situations, different lines. But yeah, that was Stan, we needed to get him in the game.”

That left Morgan Barron as the entire fourth line and forced Arniel and his staff to frequently juggle the lines, along with the D pairs, to get everyone involved.

To their credit, the Jets didn’t miss a beat.

Barron scored in the third period, while the Jets got offensive contributions from plenty of other sources as well — Mark Scheifele had a beautiful assist to go along with a hellacious bodycheck he threw on Ondrej Palat that drew a crowd; Dylan Samberg had a helper to go along with one of the more painful shot blocks you’ll see; Namestnikov, Alex Iafallo, Neal Pionk and Mason Appleton also helped set up goals.

By the end of the night, every player except the injured Kupari and Stanley (9:34) had hit double-digits in ice time.

“Each line has as bit of a different identity. I think they are all playing to their strengths,” said Morrissey.

“When we are a good team, which we are, it starts at our own end and builds from there. At the end of the day, they are all producing off good O-zone play with guys in front of the net. You have to go there to score, as everyone has always said in the game of hockey. I think a lot of good things are happening there for sure.”

6) EXTRA, EXTRA — A crowd of 11, 717 took in the action.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 31 of 34 shots, while Akira Schmid made 25 saves on 30 shots.

Winnipeg went 2-for-4 on the power play, while New Jersey, which entered the night with the No. 1 PP in the league, went 2-for-5 despite missing their top two centres in Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier due to injuries.

The Jets will now have two more practise days to get ready to close out the homestand with back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday night against the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg