‘This should be our finest hour’

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This article was published 18/12/2021 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Connor Hellebuyck pulled out his best Winston Churchill during a response Saturday afternoon that was as daring as it was hopeful.

The Winnipeg Jets goaltender believes the time is ripe for the NHL team — five points back of the fourth-place Colorado Avalanche in the Central Division — to start stringing some victories together.

Stopping the red-hot St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon would be an appropriate way to begin.

“Now, we put our best foot forward and this should be our finest hour,” said Hellebuyck, after Saturday’s first full practice under the watchful eye of interim head coach Dave Lowry at the downtown rink.

“Absolutely, there’s no waiting. Not in this league. The teams that make the playoffs are starting to take off now, especially after Christmas. We have to start coming together and, maybe, this is our turning point. Maybe this is the adversity we needed to get through.”

Indeed, it was a week of upheaval for the Jets, who suffered a shootout loss to the Canucks in Vancouver Canucks and then fell to the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals — with what some consider the forced resignation of their head coach sandwiched in between.

Paul Maurice officially stepped aside Friday morning and was replaced by one of his assistants.

The Jets (13-11-5) looked entirely disinterested in a 4-2 defeat to the Sabres on Tuesday and, despite a spirited effort against the Capitals, were dumped 5-2 about 12 hours after Maurice said so long.

The Blues (17-8-5) have won two straight and are 7-1-2 in their last 10 outings to climb into a tie with the Nashville Predators for second place in the Central Division, just a point back of the front-running Minnesota Wild.

It’s the first against what was slated to be a run of division rivals, however, Winnipeg won’t play in Music City this week, after the NHL postponed all of the Predators’ pre-Christmas contests. The rising number of COVID-19 cases within the Nashville organizaition forced the league to make the move.

The Jets, for now, are scheduled to face the Stars in Dallas on Wednesday.

Winnipeg has put out the ‘Help Wanted’ sign as it deals with the possible loss of three players to injury or illness.

Evgeny Svechnikov has been ruled out for the battle with Blues, while fellow forward David Gustafsson and defenceman Nate Schmidt are listed as day to day. The team is expected to call up as many as two players from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, for the rare matinee.

Schmidt was sent home Saturday prior to practice after indicating he wasn’t feeling well, while Gustafsson (lower body) was hurt in his season debut against Washington on Friday night. Both are listed as day to day. Svechnikov was also injured against the Capitals and will “probably be a little longer,” said Lowry.

Veteran centre Paul Stastny said he and the rest of the crew need to block out the distractions, such as the exit of a popular coach, teammates unfit for duty or schedule shuffles owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think we’ve gotta just stick with each other. We know whatever happens on the ice or away form the rink or in the locker room, it’s all on us,” said Stastny. “Coaches can say all they want, management can say what they want, ownership can say what they want, but when the puck drops it’s us… 20 guys on the ice. We have to play for each other and we have to be patient.

“Sometimes, when you’re losing like this you start thinking, ‘We gotta win three games in a row, four games in a row, five games…’ and you can’t think like that. It’s easy to put everything under a microscope and realize how bad or how good things can be, but when you take a step back if we can get out of this funk, in a couple of weeks or a couple of months when we look back this will be a little blip on the radar. It won’t be too bad,” he added.

“Just stick with the present and just focus on getting some rest and playing (Sunday’s) game. Games get cancelled, they get cancelled, it doesn’t matter. For us, we control what we can control.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell