‘Best job I’ve ever had’

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This article was published 09/12/2022 (1058 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHICAGO — It was dubbed the “Summer of Chevy,” based on the belief that Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff had done the necessary work leading into the 2021-22 NHL season to make his club a bonafide Stanley Cup contender.

Among the many moves made over the off-season, none were bigger than addressing the blue line, which included trading for Washington Capitals defencemen Brenden Dillon and acquiring Nate Schmidt. Schmidt was coming off a particularly tough year on and off the ice with the Vancouver Canucks, including not one, but two battles with COVID-19.

Known around the league as the proverbial class clown, possessing the kind of infectious energy few, if any, have in the NHL, Schmidt was looking to put the recent past behind him and focus on a future that looked bright in Winnipeg.

After all, the Canucks were young and inexperienced, considered to be in a rebuild. Meanwhile, the Jets, with their stellar goaltending and weapons on offence and now a rebuilt defence, Schmidt was ready to let the good times roll.

What he envisioned and what ultimately played out were two very different things. Not only did the Jets fall well short of heady expectations, missing the playoffs by 10 points, the fun Schmidt was hoping to have in his new hockey home never quite transpired the way he’d hoped.

“You got to find it in other places,” Schmidt told the Free Press when asked how tough it was to find joy during his first year in Winnipeg. “There were still parts to the game you still can come and have fun even if things aren’t going well on the ice. Something that’s part of being a pro is not changing every day.”

Schmidt, who is a veteran of 552 NHL games, split between stints in Washington, Vegas, Vancouver and now Winnipeg, said what became challenging for him last season was the fact he wears his heart on his sleeve. When you’re known for your entertaining antics and boisterous outbursts, even the slightest change in mood would trigger a teammate to check up on him.

“If I’m at 99 per cent or 98 per cent all day, every day and then one day I come in at 70 per cent, it’s like, ‘Hey, man, what’s wrong with you? Are you OK?’” Schmidt said. “That’s the hard part of running at a high octane.” Needless to say, things have been much smoother this season. The Jets, under new head coach Rick Bowness, are atop the Central Division, boasting a 17-7-1 record through 25 games.

Winning alone helps boost morale, said Schmidt, but it’s been the way in which the Jets have been collecting victories – through structured play on the ice and accountability to one another off it – that has been the biggest difference compared to last year.

“The way we were playing, it wasn’t that fun. It was always kind of a crapshoot, like you didn’t really know what you were going to get out of our group and that’s hard,” Schmidt said. “It’s fun when you see your team in a situation like this, what it can be like and you look back and it actually makes things worse because you realize how good your team can be, especially with a similar looking squad. It was hard in the sense that what usually gives you the most joy was the most draining on you.”

A big part of that shift falls on Bowness, who has ushered in a new culture that has the Jets playing a more consistent game on the ice and treating each other better off it.

Schmidt said players have a better idea of the systems they want to employ and where they need to be in different situations that play out in a game. He added there are wrinkles still to be smoothed out, adding it’s something to be expected this early into learning a new style of play.

A better understanding of what is expected from one another has had a positive effect in the locker room, too. Knowing how they want to win has done wonders for this club.

“The room has gotten a lot better, just from the sole factor of how we communicate with each other. That was something that we stressed at the beginning of the year,” Schmidt said. “You got to be able to talk things out and go right to the source, talk to the guys — good, bad or indifferent. How important communication is on the ice, it’s just as important in the room.”

Schmidt has never wavered in his love for the game and has always been a breath of fresh air wherever he’s played. Early in his career, while with Washington, they used to have a safe word — one he refused to disclose — for when he got too excited, which teammates used to signal to him to calm down.

Fast-forward to today, Schmidt is having a lot of fun watching the evolution of the Jets in his second year. He has three goals and three assists in 25 games this year, currently playing on the third pairing and is key contributor on the second power-play unit.

As for where his consistent glass-half-full approach to life comes from, the 31-year-old Minnesota native took a long, deep breath before answering.

“I guess it just comes from you play a game where you never know when it could be over, right? I try to have so much fun when I’m here because I’ve seen guys go through their careers just in a different state and I always thought, man, I don’t know how you could do that every day and still come to the rink,” Schmidt said.

“For me, I try to find something every day that gets me excited to be going to the rink. I love being around the guys. There’s no other job like this, where you can have successful 18- to 38-year-olds in one group that are just hanging out and doing things, travelling and seeing new things all the time. Best job I’ve ever had.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton