Jets cruisin’ in sunny California

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This article was published 29/11/2019 (2108 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ANAHEIM — What a difference a month makes.

When we last saw the Winnipeg Jets hanging around near Disneyland, they were a bit of a miserable bunch after closing out October with a 7-4 loss to the not-so-mighty Ducks of Anaheim to fall below .500 once again. 

It was just the latest example of what seemed to be a developing pattern by this consistently inconsistent club — a tiny fraction of success followed by frustration and failure. A 6-7-0 record summed that up quite nicely. Some ups. Some downs. Rinse, repeat and prepare to miss the playoffs at that rate.

But a funny thing happened on the way to more mediocrity. The Jets began to play like they no longer wanted to just be average. After watching the team over the past 30 days, they’ve not only shown they have plenty of fight, but a new lease on life as well.

Dare I say this is a much better hockey team than most of us thought?

Friday’s 3-0 victory at the Honda Center looked pretty easy for a team that made everything look hard not long ago. It followed up a strong performance Wednesday night in San Jose, where the Jets took the bite out of a streaking Sharks team in dominating 5-1 fashion. Winnipeg is now California dreamin’ of a three-game sweep as they try to close it out on a winning note tonight in Los Angeles.

“I think the theme around here is let’s keep it rolling, because two points in November is going to matter in April. So let’s keep this momentum rolling while we can,” said defenceman Neal Pionk, who scored the game-winning goal on Friday with his power play point blast early in the second period. 

Don’t look now, but the Jets are suddenly one of the hottest teams in the NHL, 10-2-1 in a November to truly remember. They’ve jumped into a top-three spot in the ultra-competitive Central Division with a 16-9-1 record, and they’re starting to resemble what a Stanley Cup contender typically looks like.

“I thought our team was getting better every single night. Finally, I guess, it clicked. Maybe we’re scoring an extra goal, maybe we’re stopping an extra goal. I can’t tell you what it is. I just know the guys in here are battling hard every single night, and I’ve seen us improve every single night,” goalie Connor Hellebuyck said Friday after stopping 24 shots for his second shutout of the season.

Hellebuyck was quick to spread the praise around the room, but make no mistake — the Jets wouldn’t be standing tall without his play. No other NHL goalie has more than his 13 wins, and his .933 save percentage and 2.23 goals-against average are among the best in the league. He’d not only be a Vezina Trophy candidate if the season ended tomorrow, but he might also get some Hart Trophy votes for most valuable player to his team.

He’s getting some help now, too. 

Nikolaj Ehlers is up to a team-leading 12 goals after his second-period snipe Friday. Kyle Connor is just behind him with 10 after his insurance tally in the third. Captain Blake Wheeler appears to have discovered the fountain of youth since moving to centre a couple weeks ago, and his two assists against the Ducks give him six points in the last three games. Mark Scheifele, with another assist, continues to be a point-a-game player. 

Patrik Laine keeps showing off his playmaking skills, with two more helpers against the Ducks to give the former goal-scoring specialist a team-high 18 assists in 24 games. He leads the Jets in scoring with 25 points.

Pionk and Josh Morrissey have been pillars on defence, both logging heavy minutes and responsibility while also contributing offence. Journeymen such as Luca Sbisa and Anthony Bitetto have added some bite, which was certainly on display against a physical Anaheim team that seemed to come out Friday wanting to impose their will.

Bitetto got their attention early when he crushed Ondrej Kase with a big hit that was a hair late. Erik Gudbranson challenged him to a fight seconds later, and Bitetto obliged. He finished a distant second in the scrap, which was just the second of the season for a Winnipeg team not exactly known for its toughness and grit.

But in this game, the Jets proved they won’t be pushed around. 

“I like to see a comfort in those types of games. We’re a young team. We’ve got some smaller, skilled guys. So that’s a game plan, right? Run ’em. See if you can intimidate them. It’s important, and I’ll go back to Adam Lowry in Las Vegas (the other fight of the season, on Nov. 1), it’s important that everybody understand these guys will stick together, and I thought we saw a real nice example of it (Friday),” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice.

There were several other post-whistle scrums, with even Jets rookie forward Joona Luoto getting involved in one and taking a roughing penalty. The same happened in San Jose, with Jack Roslovic whistled for being too aggressive.

Following that one, Wheeler joked with me that he applauded the referees for cracking down against a notorious goon such as Roslovic and “taking that out of his game.”

There, folks, is what I would call the X-factor right now. This team genuinely seems to enjoy playing together and being together. They’ve got plenty of practise so far, with 15 of their first 26 games away from Winnipeg. The Jets are 10-4-0 as the road team in enemy buildings, and 1-0-0 as the default “home” team in the neutral-site Heritage Classic in Regina.

That’s not a coincidence. They’ve built an identity, one that Maurice summed up nicely on Friday and is reflected by the fact they are 11-1-1 in one-goal games this season.

“We’re going to get good goaltending. And we’re going to stay in the fight, and we’ve been getting out on the right side of them for a while. But all of these games this month, maybe halfway through the San Jose game there was a comfort level. We’re getting good at being really uncomfortable in games,” said Maurice.

“Tight games, one-goal games, and they’re all tight. When you’re in that environment your goaltender is the critical piece. Connor has just had a spectacular month for us. But we’re comfortable in those tight games.”

That should be making the rest of the NHL pretty uncomfortable right now.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg