The puck stops here

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2024 (636 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We take you back to March 2022, when the Boston Bruins had just outclassed the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre and skated away with a relatively stress-free victory. Their coach at the time, Bruce Cassidy, provided this juicy little post-game nugget to reporters.

“We had talked about getting to the interior against Winnipeg,” Cassidy said of the recipe for success. “They have some smaller (defencemen), a couple big ones, but some smaller ones, and statistically they don’t defend the slot that well for whatever reason. So, get inside there.”

Now, fast-forward to the past week, when a Jets team comprising the same blue-liners — and many of the same core forwards — had rival coaches singing a much different post-game tune.

Here was San Jose Sharks bench boss David Quinn after the Jets downed his club 2-1 last Thursday: “They’re good at everything. They don’t have a weakness. They defend hard. They’ve got a great forward group, got a great (defence) group, and a great goalie. They’re well-coached.”

Here was Columbus head coach Pascal Vincent after the Blue Jackets’ 5-0 loss in Winnipeg on Tuesday night: “Their compete level, their structure, there’s no time, there’s no space,” Vincent began.

“It’s not fancy. It’s really, really effective. They really collapse in front of their net, their forecheck is really good, but their tracking is really, really good. When you attack — we’re a rush team, with the people we have that’s what we’re good at — and they took away our main asset. They just play a smart game.”

Night and day, isn’t it?

The Jets are leaving plenty of opponents shaking their heads lately with a stellar defensive structure that has shot them to the top of the NHL standings with a 27-9-4 record. They have a league-low 2.33 goals-against average, including a stunning 30 consecutive games allowing three or fewer, the second-longest streak in the modern era. (The 2014-15 Minnesota Wild owns the record at 35 games).

“It’s a testament to everything clicking at once. It’s your goaltender playing well. It’s your team buying into the system. It’s forwards and defencemen blocking shots. There’s a lot of stuff going on that’s made that go right.”–Neal Pionk

“I wasn’t aware of it until probably 15 games in. I think my dad mentioned it, actually. I said, ‘I have no idea what is going on.’ It’s pretty cool,” defenceman Neal Pionk said following Wednesday’s optional skate at the downtown rink.

“It’s a testament to everything clicking at once. It’s your goaltender playing well. It’s your team buying into the system. It’s forwards and defencemen blocking shots. There’s a lot of stuff going on that’s made that go right.”

As for the praise coming Winnipeg’s way, that’s all part of the plan, he said.

“It’s one of our goals going into the season, was when they play us, put that memory in their brand, that (we) were hard to play against,” said Pionk, whose team has posted seven consecutive triumphs.

“We have those teams around the league that are like that, that every night you go against a certain team it’s going to be a tough night. Whether that’s offensively or defensively, we gotta make it tough.”

They’ve certainly done that.

According to the Money Puck website, Winnipeg is allowing 1.63 goals against per 60 minutes this season, which is No. 1 by a country mile in the NHL. (The Florida Panthers are second at 2.01). The last club to have a number this low in any season was the 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings (1.61), who won the Stanley Cup that season.

The Jets will hit the midway mark of their 82-game regular season Thursday night when they host the Chicago Blackhawks. An eighth consecutive victory would set a franchise record for a team that has already re-written the history books in several other ways, including 13 straight games without a regulation defeat (11-0-2) and a record of 15-1-2 in its past 18 outings.

“It’s pretty fun. But we still haven’t accomplished anything,” forward Nikolaj Ehlers cautioned Wednesday.

“We’re not even halfway through the season, yet. It’s a matter of being able to not get comfortable and keeping it going and playing the right way and moving towards something every single time we step out on the ice. That’s something we’ve been able to do and that’s something we’ve got to keep doing.”

Despite the fact they keep piling up the points, there’s no sense of satisfaction creeping into the Jets’ game. Just listen to Ehlers critique the beatdown of the Blue Jackets.

“That’s not the game we want to play. That’s not the game we’ve been successful with,” he said, alluding to what he felt were too many chances given up off the rush.

“But when you have goalies like we do, they bail you out once in a while and they did that (Tuesday). That’s something we’ve got to clean up. But knowing that we have a few steps still, and playing the way we are, that’s pretty exciting.”

Ehlers said he and his teammates only have to look at what went down last season when the Jets had a strong first half — they were flirting with first place in the Central Division and Western Conference — only to falter down the stretch, limp into the playoffs as a wild-card entry and promptly get eliminated in the first round by the eventual-champion Vegas Golden Knights.

“Everyone saw what happened last year around this time,” he said. “We have enough guys from last year to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Extra, extra: Pionk, Ehlers and Dominic Toninato were the only three players from Tuesday’s game who hit the ice Wednesday. They were joined by backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit, healthy scratch Logan Stanley, and injured skaters Kyle Connor, David Gustafsson and Ville Heinola.

“Getting off the West Coast, just wanted to get some of that out of me. I wanted to sweat and I had to decide between either shovelling or practise and I chose practise,” Pionk explained.

As for Ehlers: “I didn’t feel very good (Tuesday). Didn’t play very well. I think my legs needed to get out there and maybe get that last road trip out of my system. Hopefully, we’ll see (Thursday) if it worked.”

Although he wasn’t on the ice, Mark Scheifele was around the team and showed no ill effects after taking a puck to the side of the head against Columbus in the third period, courtesy of a deflected Josh Morrissey slapshot. He didn’t return to the game after receiving a few stitches around his ear but came out for post-game celebrations.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg