Jets could crash without leaving runway

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/01/2022 (1322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LOUIS – To call the Jets 2021-22 season a smooth one would be like suggesting Winnipeg winters are balmy.

Indeed, it’s been anything but clear waters for the Winnipeg Jets, who officially hit the midway mark of their NHL campaign following Saturday’s 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center. Through 41 games, Winnipeg is 18-16-7, and heading into Sunday’s action sit five points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, with four other non-playoff teams ahead of it in the standings.

“It’s important to go through adversity and we have and still are. We have a lot of injuries, Covid, but every team goes through rough patches and every team has injuries and nobody feels bad for you at the end of the day,” Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois said after the victory over the Blues.

“For us, the important part is obviously winning because that’s what gets you in the playoffs, but it’s improving and getting better and better throughout the year. You don’t want to go into the playoffs, even if you make them, with eight losses or not playing well or not being happy with how you’re playing because you can’t be searching for yourself in the playoffs because it’s too late.”

He added: “The first half, there were some positives that we’ll retain and keep moving forward with and there are negatives that we can learn from. But it’s all part of an 82-game season.”

Dubois is certainly not wrong in his assessment of the challenges the Jets have faced this year, and he’s right that injuries and, more specifically, players contracting the coronavirus has become the new normal in professional sports. In fact, figures released by the NHL, issued fewer than two weeks ago, reported that 73 per cent of the more than 700 NHL players have contracted COVID-19.

The Jets have had 17 players and three coaches enter COVID protocols this season, including the likes of forwards Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and Paul Stastny, as well as defencemen Dylan DeMelo, Brenden Dillon and Josh Morrisey, with Morrissey currently in quarantine. In total, the Jets have recorded 28 man games lost to COVID-19, with five of those games accounted for by backup goaltender Eric Comrie. That doesn’t include assistant coaches Wade Flaherty and Charlie Huddy, as well as video coach Matt Prefontaine, all of whom were also forced into COVID protocol.

As far as injuries go, the Jets have suffered only a few significant losses, including to Stastny (eight games), Wheeler (nine) and Ehlers (six), who still remains out, but, overall, haven’t been that banged up. They’ve been healthy for much of the year and haven’t lost anyone to a season-ending injury.

These figures don’t account for any other examples of adversity within a season, whether that be to a specific player or the team as a whole. Wheeler was asked last week if he felt the Jets were a fragile group, a fair question given their heady expectations heading into the season, with Winnipeg considered to be among the serious contenders to win the Stanley Cup.

The Jets captain didn’t mince words in his defence of a characteristic no hockey club would ever want to be associated with.

“I would say that this team has dealt with the most adversity of any team I’ve played on in 14 years. So, I would actually, completely say the opposite about this group,” Wheeler said. “Yeah, wins and losses aren’t going our way right now, but we’ve dealt with a lot…a lot. So, we can go through a list and those would be labeled excuses, and I’m not in real big hurry to start using excuses. But fragile is not a word I would use to describe this group. We’ve had to deal with a lot this year.” Whatever the reasons have been, what’s clear is the Jets aren’t anywhere near where they expected to be at this point in the year.

There was a lot of hype built around this club over the offseason, after Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff upgraded the blue line, adding defencemen Dillon and Nate Schmidt through trades with Washington and Vancouver, respectively. Add in the fact Kyle Connor’s game has hit a new level and Dubois is also playing the best hockey of his young career, and the Jets dismal first half has been perplexing.

“There’s going to be ups and downs, but I think it’s about building your game,” Dubois said. “You don’t play the same way at the end of the year that you do at the start. And if you do, you’re probably not in the playoffs.”

Perhaps a three-game road trip to kick off the season, where the Jets managed to pick up just one of a possible six points, was foreshadowing what was to come. But it made sense to ignore such a suggestion after the Jets replied with points in their next seven games, including six victories over that stretch.

By the middle of November, the Jets were leading the Central Division with a record of 9-3-3. Since then, Winnipeg has registered the same about of victories, but with 11 more games played over that time, resulting in their current mark of 18-16-7.

Things got so miserable by the middle of December, it resulted in Paul Maurice making the rare move of resigning as the team’s head coach. His final game behind the bench was a 4-2 loss to the lowly Sabres, which dropped the Jets to 13-10-5.

Under interim coach Dave Lowry, who was an assistant prior to Maurice stepping down, the Jets haven’t been better and seem to be barely treading water, with a mark of 5-6-2. The win against St. Louis snapped a six-game steak without a win (0-4-2).

Winnipeg has one more game – Tuesday night in Philadelphia against the Flyers – before getting close to a week off for the all-star break. Connor is the lone Jet selected to take part in the weekend festivities.

“We’re in a position where we just got to focus in and keep our mindset, our goal, simple. We don’t like where we’re at right now,” Lowry said. “We know we’re going to have to play better in the second half but if we can build off of the effort (Saturday) and go back and talk about what we did in Pittsburgh on the road (a 3-2 overtime loss on Jan. 23) to give us an opportunity, we’ll be a team that is very good.”

That might be easier said than done. Prior to the current road trip, following a disappointing 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at home on Thursday, questions were asked about whether the Jets had established an identity this season. A blueprint that that they could follow, consistently, night in and night out.

“Probably not,” Scheifele said. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We’re trying to figure out what that is, and it comes from within this room, and we have to figure it out in this group of guys. So, we got to lean on each other, we got to stick together and keep fighting for that.” If practice makes perfect, the Jets don’t have that on their side either.

With seven games from December and January, most of them on home ice, postponed to later in the season owing to health restrictions limiting attendance at Canada Life Centre to 250 people, the Jets will play the next 41 games over an 88-day stretch. There’s one particular run in February where Winnipeg plays seven games in 11 days. It’s not exactly the kind of schedule that will afford much practice time, especially when you consider the mandated days off for players each week.

To make matters even more challenging, after a relatively easier start to the second half of the season, with 11 of their next 18 games against teams currently outside of the playoff line, the Jets have one of the most difficult schedules to wrap up the season. Of their final 23 games, 13 of them are against playoff teams. And of their final seven games, a stretch that will ultimately decide the Jets playoff hopes, six are against playoff teams, with five either leading or second in their respective division.

The question now: is what was witnessed on Saturday against the Blues an indicator of more strong play to come, or will it prove simply to be a momentary break from the inconsistent play the Jets have shown for much the year?

“I think that this team is what you saw (Saturday),” Schmidt said. “I like to hold myself to a pretty high standard. I like to hold our guys there, too. You look at what we did (against the Blues) and that should be your standard. That should be your benchmark in the way you play.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton