Structured, disciplined, committed

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This article was published 08/12/2023 (668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ANAHEIM — The Winnipeg Jets traded their hockey sticks for golf clubs on Friday, enjoying a day of team bonding away from the rink.

It was well-deserved, too, with the biggest win of their season — so far — still fresh in the minds. A truly impressive 4-2 triumph over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night got this four-game road trip pointed in the right direction. Joy levels, to say the least, are rather high right now around the club.

Here’s the thing. As positive as everyone is justifiably feeling about the current state-of-affairs, you won’t see a single player or coach taking anything resembling a victory lap. Far from it, in fact.

For proof, come with us inside the locker room at Ball Arena, just minutes after the final buzzer had sounded and the club had improved to 15-8-2 and pulled within two points of first place in the Central Division.

The mood could best be described as business-like, with a healthy dose of humour mixed in for good measure.

There was Connor Hellebuyck, who is once again staking a case for being the best goaltender on the planet, downplaying another milestone on his impressive resume (his 250th career win) while making a case that one of the goals shouldn’t have counted.

“I think the second one is goaltender interference,” he said. “The guy comes through my skate and I don’t think I ever let that goal in if the guy doesn’t do that. I know I was pretty furious at the moment but I thought we played pretty well other than that.”

Reminder: The Jets won the game. In enemy territory. Against the team currently leading the division. Who captured the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Not to be outdone, captain Adam Lowry was questioning the accuracy of the faceoff statistics which had the Jets winning 48 per cent, suggesting some hometown bias was in play when it came to scrambled draws that require a judgment call.

It was, quite frankly, refreshing. This is the mark of a group that knows trophies aren’t being handed out in early December and that a little levity can perhaps go a long way.

Just as they’d like to ensure their lows don’t get too low, it’s obvious the Jets also want to prevent anyone from getting too high. Perhaps it’s a product of solid starts over the past two years which ultimately went for naught as the bottom fell out. Maybe, it’s what coach Rick Bowness was talking about prior to puck drop. A matter of maturity.

“Last year we had to get the structure back. That’s not a process that takes one month or two months or three months. It’s an ongoing process,” Bowness explained.

“Players play a certain way for three or four years and when the heat of the action gets going, they go back to the ways that had become natural to them. It takes time to break those natural habits down.”

Just look at them now, where the Jets are certainly looking like a grown-up group. Structured. Disciplined. Committed. The result is 15 straight games in which they’ve allowed three or fewer goals, with a team goals-against-average of a tidy 2.68 which is seventh-best in the NHL.

It’s one thing for Bowness and company to talk about how they think things have changed. When others around the league start to take notice, then perhaps you’re really on to something significant.

“They’ve always had this group where you kind of expected this. This is what you expected from afar. You look at the roster and you’re like ‘That’s a hell of a team.’ And then, you know, not sure what’s happened,” Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said on Monday, a few hours before the Jets downed his club 2-1.

“But now you see it. They’re playing a style that is very consistent. That’s what I’m seeing. Consistency. And then high-end guys are doing their thing, but they have an identity on how they’re playing. And they’re hard to play against. And that’s how you win in this league.”

Prior to puck drop Thursday night in Denver, Avalanche bench boss Jared Bednar had plenty of praise for the visitors.

“It looks like a really disciplined, structured team,” he said.

“I look at some of their numbers, like their rush attacks have been really good, their rush coverage has been really good, disciplined at protecting the house in the defensive zone. It’s all the things that coaches are going to key on. I think it’s the maturity of their team, understanding where they’re at. Once you figure out what it takes to win on any given night just trying to hit that mark every night. It looks like they’re doing it, and they’re getting great goaltending to go along with it.”

Given how recent seasons have played out, it may be natural for some fans to be skeptical. It sure seems like players are making a concerted effort to not let a little bit of success go to their heads. No longer do they simply hope to hang around and compete with the likes of Colorado and Carolina. They expect to.

“We want to be considered an elite team. You gotta beat the teams ahead of you. We proved tonight that we can play with anybody,” Bowness said after beating the Avalanche.

Next up for the Jets are pair of California teams that are nowhere near elite. They’ll face the 10-16-0 Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night, and the 8-17-2 San Jose Sharks on Tuesday. Those should provide a different type of test for Winnipeg, who will want to avoid falling into the trap of playing “down” to an opponent.

The road trip concludes with what might be the most elite team in the NHL right now, the 16-4-3 Los Angeles Kings, on Wednesday. They already own a victory over the Jets this year, something Lowry was quick to bring up in the aftermath of the Avalanche game while also lumping in some of their other losses so far this year.

“We always talk about trying to be an elite team, we want to be considered one of the best in the conference, one of the best in the division and I think as we’ve come up through this year, our two games against Dallas, our two games against Vegas, our game against LA and the (New York) Rangers, we’ve come up short and talked about that,” he said.

That sure sounds like a team that is tired of simply talking the talk — but wants to do everything possible to walk the walk.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg