PlayStation Jets have bright future

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This article was published 06/11/2016 (3494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK — The kids are going to be all right, although you’d have been hard pressed to tell it Sunday night.

A Winnipeg Jets team that has made a specialty this season of redeeming lousy second periods with great third periods finally went to that well once too often at Madison Square Garden and got punished for it in a humbling 5-2 loss to a very good New York Rangers team.

The goaltending was poor — starter Connor Hellebuyck was lifted in the second period for Michael Hutchinson, who also looked shaky. But when the smoke settled, the real problem was the same one it’s been for the Jets all season — a terrible second period in which the Jets were outscored 4-1.

Add that tally to the rest of this season’s sordid second-period tale and Winnipeg has now been outscored in the middle frame by a score of — wait for it — 21-5.

The surprise isn’t their season record fell to 5-7-1 with the loss; no, the surprise is Winnipeg’s record is not much, much worse than that after playing just 40 minutes of hockey a night for basically the entire season to date.

So yeah, all of that — not good.

But step back for a moment from the tire fire that was Home Alone, Lost in New York and there’s actually quite a bit to like about what this patched-together lineup of youngsters barely old enough to shave showed on the three-game road that wrapped up Sunday.

With a sick bay filled to overflowing and mired in the midst of the toughest part of their schedule, the over-under was about zero for how many points the Jets would earn on a trip that saw them play three games in four nights in three of the toughest buildings in the league in Washington, Detroit and Manhattan.

So it is to the everlasting credit of this young group they flew home early this morning with three out of a possible six points, earned in a come-from-behind win in Detroit and a come-from-behind overtime loss in Washington.

“The quality of our game I think warranted more than three points,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said Sunday. “But given our schedule, given our injuries — that’s a hell of a job…”

Indeed, if the Jets play .500 hockey on the road against opponents like these all season — and a little better than that the rest of the time— this team will be on to something.

The injuries that had seven regular starters out of the lineup on this trip are already starting to heal — Maurice said defencemen Tyler Myers and Mark Stuart and forward Mathieu Perreault could all be back in the lineup as early as Tuesday, when the Jets play host to the Dallas Stars at the MTS Centre.

That will help. But if you’re a Jets fan looking for reason to hope, the real optimism is in what you saw from the future of this team on this three-game trip:

Patrik Laine scored twice — and added an assist — and was tied Sunday night for the NHL goal-scoring lead with some guy named Sidney Crosby;

Nikolaj Ehlers is playing some of the best hockey of his career and notched a career-high four-point night in Detroit;

Mark Scheifele added another goal and an assist Sunday, giving him five points on this trip and a team-leading 14 points in 13 games, including seven goals.

Throw in continued solid play from defenceman Josh Morrissey, a two-goal night from Brandon Tanev and a 30-save performance from Hellebuyck in Detroit and the kids carried this team for the past week as the veterans convalesced.

They are young, to be sure. But they are mature beyond their years and very clearly not overwhelmed by the league’s brightest lights — on the ice or off of it.

Asked what he did during a day off Saturday in New York, Laine said he did a little shopping but mostly stayed in and played PlayStation — an activity the young Finn has repeatedly made clear is his single favourite thing after hockey.

Hellebuyck also said he stayed in, lamenting the New York traffic. (Go figure a goalie doesn’t like dealing with traffic).

If that sounds boring, well, it also illustrates something else Maurice said Sunday about how his young team might be so young they don’t even know when they’re supposed to be impressed.

“I think their excitement outweighs the intimidation,” said Maurice. “They haven’t been in the game long enough to know…”

They’ll learn. But the last week suggests they might also school a couple of teams along the way.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca