Jets flying high with win over Stars

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This article was published 08/11/2022 (1080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet your first place Winnipeg Jets.

As strange as it may sound to some, that’s exactly where the hockey club finds itself a month into the NHL’s regular season. It’s well-deserved, too, especially with their run of recent play.

A 5-1 victory over Dallas on Tuesday before 13,847 fans at Canada Life Centre might just be their most impressive and thorough so far. It gives the locals an 8-3-1 record, which is their best-ever 12-game start to a season in the 2.0 era. It also has them looking down on everyone else in the Central Division. (The Stars are technically tied with 17 points, but have a lower win percentage having played an extra game).

“They’re starting to realize that we’ve got a good team here,” said Jets coach Rick Bowness. “It’s starting to sink in. There’s always room for improvement. We’ve got a long way to go and still have lots of work ahead of us, but we’re getting there.”

Winnipeg has collected points in seven straight (6-0-1), including winning all three games on this homestand by a combined score of 12-3. While triumphs over Montreal (3-2 in overtime) and Chicago (4-0) may not move the needle a ton given the low expectations of those rebuilding clubs, you can’t say the same about this one over the scorching-hot Stars.

Dallas came to town on a three-game winning streak, blowing out their latest three victims by a total of 18-6. Prior to puck drop, Jets players and coaches talked about this being a good litmus test. Consider this a rock-solid pass, with flying colours.

Here’s how it looked from our perch:

1) That escalated quickly.

The two teams spent the first 23:06 looking for offence, with goaltenders the early storyline. Dallas’s Scott Wedgewood, normally the backup but thrust into the starting role with Jake Oettinger currently injured, was especially busy in turning aside 18 shots in an opening period dominated by the home team.

Things changed in a hurry. Jason Robertson opened the scoring early in the second period, and Winnipeg responded exactly how you would want from a team that had largely controlled the play but not been rewarded. Mark Scheifele tied it 21 seconds later with his team-leading seventh, and then Pierre-Luc Dubois (his sixth) and Scheifele struck again in short order.

“I love that. That’s what we say, if we score, we want to go right back at them. If they score, we want to go right back at them and you have to respond. And they did,” said Bowness.

From a 1-0 deficit to a 3-1 advantage in 2:45 of frantic action.

“You just can’t get too frustrated. There’s still lots of game. Just know what’s working, know what beats teams. We just played with speed, we made some passes. We made some plays,” Scheifele said.

“We’re just comfortable playing our game. We’re not sitting back on our heels, we’re playing on our toes, we’re making it hard on teams to make plays and make continuous passes. That comes with playing fast and having good sticks and trusting your teammates.”

2) Nikolaj Ehlers who?

We’re kidding, of course. The Jets miss the dynamic winger, who had three assists in his first two games, and now has missed the last 10 with a lower-body injury that is taking its sweet time healing.

But Mason Appleton has proven to be a pretty nice stop-gap, and he had his best game of the year with three points (1G, 2A). His pass on Scheifele’s first goal was as good as it gets, and he made another nice feed, along with linemate Kyle Connor, on Scheifele’s second. Both were basically tap-ins.

“They are more offensive-minded then I am, but I think my game has the ability to complement them pretty well,” said Appleton.

His first goal of the year, into an empty-net, was the cherry on the sundae.

“He’s been fantastic. He’s been grinding, he’s been doing all the right things and making plays. Obviously, on my first goal it was an unbelievable feed by him there,” said Scheifele. “He’s been absolutely fantastic on the forecheck, to the net, doing all the dirty work. Obviously fantastic on the kill. He’s been getting better each and every game. That’s exciting for us as a line.”

There’s hope Ehlers will resume skating later this week. Once he’s ready to go, Bowness has a nice problem on his hands. Appleton likely returns to his usual third-line spot but has shown the ability to move up the lineup when needed.

3) Speaking of the third line, Saku Maenalanen, Adam Lowry and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby continue to impress. They are true puck hogs, with a great blend of size and speed and strength and skill. They often tilt the ice in Winnipeg’s favour while being matched up against the other team’s best (on this night that meant the line of Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz), and it was nice to see them get rewarded as Maenalanen tipped a Josh Morrissey shot for his first in a Jets uniform late in the second period to basically put this one to bed.

“You got a line like that almost on every team that you got to take care of them and then you get your offence from there because a lot of elite guys in this league, if they are not getting what they want, can get a little frustrated and you can see it on them,” said Appleton. “That’s the role everyone should love to thrive in, shutting down the best players in the league. Whoever has that matchup that night, as long as they do that job and let the other lines take care of the offence, it should be resulting in a lot of wins for us.”

4) The days of boxing matches breaking out during hockey games are, thankfully, a thing of the past. The game has never been quicker or more skilled, and chucking knuckles doesn’t happen very often.

Which is why Tuesday’s first-period tilt between Winnipeg’s Brenden Dillon and Dallas Ty Dellandrea was notable. It was arguably the first scrap of the season for the Jets, unless you count Morgan Rielly jumping Morrissey last month (after he delivered a big hit) and both players somehow being given five-minute majors.

There was no doubt about this one, with Dillon and Dellandrea going toe-to-toe for nearly a minute.

“That was a good fight,” said Scheifele. “(Dillon) is a heart and soul guy. He blocks shots, he hits guys, he makes it hard to play against. Coming out hot after that was big for our team, so kudos to him.”

5) Was there any money on the board for “Bones”?

Nobody was saying, but no doubt the Jets had a little extra motivation to get their new coach a win over his former team, especially with the stakes so high. Bowness missed the 4-1 loss in Dallas last month as he battled COVID-19.

Bowness said his group looks a lot different these days,

“I see a more confident team. They understand if they play the right way and do these things that we keep preaching, we’re going to have success,” he said. “We are going to cut down on the chances against, the shots against and we are going to have a lot more fun when we get the puck. I think that they are starting to see it. They should see it. They’re playing like they see it. The confidence is there right now.”

Up next: Winnipeg will play just two games over an eight-day stretch — Saturday in Calgary and Sunday in Seattle — before opening another homestand next Thursday.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg