Gaining altitude

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This article was published 30/10/2015 (3615 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Paul Maurice stepped up to the podium, his face set in stone, his voice filled with all the emotion of an usher guiding folks to their seats at a funeral.

This coming Thursday night, not long after his Winnipeg Jets had finished off a solid 3-2-1 homestand with a 3-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. So why did the Jets coach look like he had just gulped down a carton of sour milk?

Well, even at 6-3-1 the Jets are still very much a work in progress. And with the bar set higher during last year’s run to a playoff berth, his expectations for his crew have grown. They’ve also grown inside the locker-room, it seems, where the troops are parroting the same message as the general about pushing to get better, even in the wake of a win and even if the 6-3-1 start is the best 10-game opening for the franchise since its relocation.

Every team has returning pieces and new pieces that makes one year’s edition different from the last. And so every coach is tasked with reading his squad and then pushing the right buttons to maximize its return.

So, what do we make of the 2015-16 Jets after 10 games?

“It’s still early. But I would say that as of right now we’re a team that can skate really well and make plays,” said veteran defenceman Mark Stuart. “Now it’s a matter of doing that night in and night out. We’re still learning a little bit how hard it is to win in this league and that you have to do that for 60 minutes in order to get the win.

“We’ll get there, and once we do good things will happen.”

That’s our early take, too, knowing full well the calendar has yet to turn to November and there are 72 games left in this gruelling marathon.

 

Here are 10 takes on the Jets at the 10-game mark (all numbers prior to Friday night’s action):

 

1. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

A huge question mark for this franchise prior to puck drop for Game 1 in Boston was how would Nikolaj Ehlers, Nic Petan and Andrew Copp — along with Alex Burmistrov, returning from the KHL — manage to replace vets Michael Frolik, Lee Stempniak, Jiri Tlusty and Jim Slater.

The early answer: quite capably, actually.

Ehlers has been sensational with four goals and four assists through 10 games; Copp is centring a fourth line that is earning more minutes; Burmistrov has shown flashes while Petan — who draws the press box assignment whenever Maurice wants to go bigger and insert Anthony Peluso — brings a skill level to the second power-play unit and the fourth trio. Petan’s skill set, it says here, should lead to an occasional look in the Top 9, even if it means bumping a struggling forward down.

 

 

2. DON’T FIXATE ON THE CENTRAL, FIXATE ON THE BIGGER PICTURE

A storyline that’s already getting old: how tough the Central Division has been and will be the rest of this winter. Hey, we understand the Jets being in the NHL’s toughest neighbourhood is a talking point and no doubt we’ll be hammering away at it from now until April. Five teams from the Central, including wild-card squads Minnesota and the Jets, earned invitations to the playoffs last season and we don’t see that changing.

Heading into Friday’s action the Blackhawks, with 12 points in 10 games, were sixth in the Central but had the same point total as Los Angeles and Vancouver in the Pacific.

The Jets will likely need a repeat of the 16-8-5 mark they posted against the Central — or, at least, an improvement on their 10-8-3 record against the Pacific last year — to stay above the playoff line. And just like last season, this will be a test of the team’s depth.

 

3. ICKY STARTS, BETTER FINISHES

The Jets have surrendered the first goal in eight of their 10 games this season — including Thursday’s win over Chicago — and yet are 5-2-1 when they give up the first marker. That’s a dangerous act to try and continue and a long way from last year’s team, which scored first in 49 of its 82 contests. No team wants to be chasing the game from the outset.

 

4. WHO’S NO. 1?

Ondrej Pavelec still seems to be the club’s top netminding dog, as much a nod toward the work he did last year in leading this team to the post-season as his numbers through six starts. But consider this in the wake of Thursday’s win, a game in which Michael Hutchinson stopped 45 of the 46 shots he faced — the No. 1a/2 man is now a perfect 4-0 this year with a goals-against average of 1.75 and a save percentage of .949, numbers which put him up there with stars such as Price, Rinne and Lundqvist.

Pavelec, meanwhile, is 2-3-1 with a .918 save percentage and 2.69 GAA.

A goaltending debate doesn’t have to be cancerous, as we saw last year with the Jets. Hutchinson pushing Pavelec — while Connor Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie blossom with the Manitoba Moose — is nothing but healthy.

5. THE D PAIRINGS… ANOTHER WORK IN PROGRESS?

Maurice has left his forward lines intact, other than to switch out Petan for Peluso, but has tinkered with his defensive pairings. It’s hard not to think this will change again in the games ahead. Dustin Byfuglien has done his thing from the blue-line, but the rest of the crew has been all over the map.

Everyone is waiting for Jacob Trouba to take that proverbial next step into dominant D-man; Tyler Myers and Ben Chiarot have had just as many iffy moments as good; Stuart is what he is — Thursday’s game was his best in eons — while Toby Enstrom, depending on your point of view, is either a capable puck-mover or vulnerable to being pounded by the bigger teams in the Western Conference.

All of this is to say this unit, a real tower of power for the Jets last year, still has some work to do.

 

6. NO BRAKES ON BLAKE

It’s early, way too early, to be throwing this out, but here it goes anyway: this franchise hasn’t had a player lead them in scoring with better than a point per game since Ilya Kovalchuk had 87 in 2007-08. Wheeler has five goals and 12 points in 10 games — including a game-winning goal and a short-handed effort — to put him in the Top 5 in scoring to start the year. He’s been the club’s most consistent forward and, dating back to last year, now has 15 goals and 14 assists in his last 28 games.

 

7. THE SHOOTING GALLERIES

Shots-against hardly equal quality chances against, but one of the reasons Maurice might have been a little withdrawn after Thursday’s win was the 46 shots surrendered. That’s a scary number, no matter how many quality chances it may have included. The Jets have allowed 30 or more shots in eight of their 10 games and have given up 40 or more in four of them.

Bryan Little pointed out after the Chicago win he’s lost track how many times Pavelec and Hutchinson have bailed out this bunch and for a coach that has pressed for better defensive zone coverage. That’s a potentially frightening trend.

 

8. VERY SPECIAL TEAMS

The Jets’ power play is clicking at 24.1 per cent — seven of 29 — which ranked seventh heading into Friday, while the penalty-kill unit is 13th overall. The power play now throws out two deadly units with more skill and firepower — courtesy Ehlers, Petan and last year’s addition, Mattieu Perreault — and the penalty-kill unit has to be good because of this: the Jets still take way too many minors.

The Jets’ power-play/penalty-kill time differential is minus-17 minutes 53 seconds, second-worst in the NHL to the New York Islanders (minus-19:13). They’re fifth-highest in short-handed minutes and fifth-lowest in power-play time. And that’s a not a good combo.

 

9. THE BOSS MAN

Paul Maurice was parachuted in to take over the Jets Jan. 12, 2014. He had worked in big markets and small, was respected by his players and seen as one of hockey’s deep thinkers upon his arrival. And he was also a career .500 coach. But since arriving he’s helped transform a mediocre-to-poor team into a contender. His record with the Jets is 67-41-19 and his understanding of his personnel and how best to put them in positions to succeed also speaks of his growth as a coach.

 

10. THE ROAD AHEAD

The Jets are 3-2-1 at home to start this season but given the quality of the opponents — last year’s champs and finalists in Chicago and Tampa, three other playoff teams in St. Louis, Calgary and Minnesota and the Kings, who won two of the three Cups before stumbling last winter — that’s a better body of work than you might think.

But it’s what lies ahead that will give us a better feel for this year’s edition: eight of the Jets’ next nine, and 10 of 14 games in November, will be away from the MTS Centre.

Settle in, folks. This movie is barely past the opening credits.

 

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait