Jets look to close out road trip with another victory against Canucks Sunday night

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This article was published 20/02/2021 (1662 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets have already had a good road trip, taking two of the first three games in Edmonton and Vancouver. Now they have a chance to get a little greedy and turn it into a great one with Sunday night’s finale.

Another victory over the Canucks would send them flying home on a high note, but players are expecting a significant push from what should be a desperate opponent. After all, Vancouver (8-12-1) is already four points in arrears of Winnipeg (10-6-1), despite playing four extra games, so the early hole they’ve already dug themselves in the all-Canadian division could quickly get even deeper.

“It’s tough to beat a team consecutive times. You get a win and one team gets a little too high, one team gets pissed off so they play a little better the next night. It’s just about staying even-keeled, coming out with the same effort every night and kind of pressing the reset button every game. You can’t get too high off one win. Just gotta come out (Sunday) and be ready to go again,” Jets defenceman Derek Forbort said following Saturday’s practice at Rogers Arena.

Winnipeg was certainly ready to go Friday night, skating away with a solid 2-0 victory behind Laurent Brossoit’s 29-save shutout in his hometown. Mark Scheifele on an early breakaway, and Mason Appleton into an empty-net, provided all the offence.

The Jets might welcome Pierre-Luc Dubois back into the lineup for th 9 p.m. CT puck drop. He’s missed the past four games with a lower-body injury but was a full participant at Saturday’s on-ice session.

“It’s not a long practice because we’re playing a fairly heavy schedule. He got through it, he looked good, so we’ll see how he comes back (Sunday),” said Jets coach Paul Maurice, who is considering a different role for the 22-year-old centre once he’s back.

“There’s a bunch of things that we’re looking at. One of them would be the wing. A little different kind of wear and tear down low, but it would be more minutes. I wouldn’t have any concern really about his body at that point. We’ll monitor his minutes a little bit,” he said.

Connor Hellebuyck will get the start in net for the Jets.

Winnipeg began the western swing with a wild 6-5 victory over Edmonton on Monday night, then lost the re-match on Wednesday by a 3-2 score despite a solid overall effort. Friday’s win makes them 5-0-1 this young season following a loss.

“It’s important that you keep piling up points. We know how difficult it is to win back-to-back games in these series. I think 3-1 would be a terrific result and that’s what we’re aiming for tomorrow.”– Jets forward Adam Lowry

“I think we look at how we’ve played and the style we’ve played. I don’t know if we necessarily loved our first game in Edmonton, but we were able to find a win. I think the last two games were a lot closer to the style that we want to play,” said Jets forward Adam Lowry.

“It’s important that you keep piling up points. We know how difficult it is to win back-to-back games in these series. I think 3-1 would be a terrific result and that’s what we’re aiming for tomorrow.”

Winnipeg would be wise to try and score first again — Vancouver is a woeful 0-11 this season when they surrender the first tally.

“Maybe it’s a bit of a mental hurdle for them that they feel they get down and they’ve had a tough time coming back. I think it is one of those things, over the course of the season, that’s going to necessarily be a trend. Teams are going to be able to dig themselves out of the hole,” said Lowry.

“But any time you can kind of get that first goal, it puts you in a position to succeed. It’s a lot easier to play with the lead. You don’t have to take some unnecessary risks. You’re not constantly pressing. You get off to a good start, you kind of build that confidence and you’re able to roll lines a a little easier. It just kind of allows the game flow, especially from your team’s perspective, to roll a lot more easily.”

Although Brossoit was certainly a big story, the Jets helped him out by blocking 18 Canucks shots, with 13 of them coming from the forwards.

“It’s about time they started blocking some shots up there,” joked Forbort. “No, we knew coming in they have some pretty dynamic defencemen. That’s just what it takes to get the win, guys selling out their bodies and getting in front of the shot. It was pretty cool to see (Friday) night, guys were really laying it on the line for the boys.”

We may only be five weeks into the season, but it’s not too early to be watching the standings. Other than Toronto at the top and Ottawa at the bottom, the other five clubs are all separated by a few points right now, although Vancouver has played several more games.

“It’s such a good division, there’s so many good teams, you don’t want to leave any points on the table. So it’s just about being on every night. If you take too much time off pretty soon you’re pretty low in the standings,” said Forbort.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg