Jets need to find goals fast

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This article was published 07/02/2024 (607 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHILADELPHIA — They say misery loves company.

That might explain why the Winnipeg Jets suddenly have no shortage of snake-bitten skaters who are squeezing their sticks and in a surly mood these days.

Forwards Nino Niederreiter (14 games), Alex Iafallo (12) and Morgan Barron (11) are all in double-digit droughts. Adam Lowry (nine) and Cole Perfetti (eight) are rapidly approaching, while Nikolaj Ehlers (one goal in seven) and Kyle Connor (one in six) have gone cold as well.

At least Ehlers scored on a goaltender. Connor’s lone tally was into an empty net on Jan. 16, his first game back after a five-week injury absence.

Add it all up and the Jets have scored just nine times in the last seven games, going 2-4-1 in that span. That includes a trio of shutout defeats — losing 2-0 to Philadelphia on Jan. 11, 1-0 to Toronto on Jan. 24 and 3-0 to Pittsburgh on Tuesday in the first game back after a nine-day break.

Don’t look now, but Winnipeg’s next two games are rematches against the pair of Pennsylvania opponents. The struggling 30-13-5 Central Division squad faces the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night and then hosts the Penguins at Canada Life Centre on Saturday at 6 p.m.

So, where has all the offence gone?

To get some answers, we went to the guy who still leads the club with 19 goals but can’t seem to buy one lately.

“It’s the overall fact of how we generate offence. I think we’ve got to be comfortable talking about more,” Connor told the Free Press on Wednesday following his team’s on-ice workout at the Flyers practice facility in Voorhees, N.J.

As he went on to explain, the Jets need to start putting the same type of focus on the offensive side of the game as they have in their own zone this year, which has paid off handsomely with the NHL’s best defensive numbers.

“We’ve got to be more crisper,” said Connor. “We have to realize each line has its strengths and kind of play to that more often than not.”

Head coach Rick Bowness has repeatedly said he wants all four lines to look the same in terms of work ethic, structure and systems. Having the team’s brightest stars suddenly producing like bottom-six forwards certainly isn’t part of the plan.

Connor has 21 shots in the five games since he scored, which would suggest he’s due for the dam to burst soon. He had several good looks Tuesday against Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry but couldn’t convert. It was the fourth game of the year that he’s played on the same line as Mark Scheifele and Gabe Vilardi, who have also battled injury issues.

“I think we generated more than enough to score a couple of goals. You keep doing the right things over and over and you’re going to get rewarded more times than not,” said Connor, who had six of his team’s 23 shots.

Getting the power play going would surely help the cause, as Winnipeg has gone two-for-34 over the past 10 games. A new-look top unit with Connor, Scheifele, Vilardi, Sean Monahan (making his Jets debut) and Josh Morrissey went 0-for-2 against the Penguins but showed some promise in a very small sample size.

Not surprisingly, special-teams work was the focus at Wednesday’s skate.

“You can’t be (one dimensional). There’s stuff we can control. Your work ethic, how you get the puck back, zone entries, all that’s gotta be sharper. At the end of the day, you’ve got to make plays,” said Connor.

“I’m expecting us to take that next step.”

As a veteran of 858 games and counting, Niederreiter knows there will be ups and downs when it comes to production. The guy who’s been stuck on 12 goals since Dec. 30 — he scored twice that day against the Minnesota Wild — said this latest slump is as frustrating as any on a personal level.

“I wish it would change,” he said. “It’s still the same. It’s just like when you’re beginning in the league and you don’t score, just as the same right now, obviously, it’s frustrating. You’ve got mind games going on with yourself and trying to overthink. You don’t trust your shot and all that. That doesn’t change if you’re getting older and signed a long-term deal. You’re right there and want to score and produce and do whatever it takes to win. The overthinking part is the hardest part.”

So, how to escape this little crisis of confidence?

“We know we need to create more net-front presence and find a way to score more goals,” said Niederreiter, who makes his living in the blue paint. “We’ve got to keep pounding pucks, keep shooting. Try to create some mad scrambles in front. That’s something we know we need to do to create more greasy goals.”

Bowness isn’t ready to push the panic button, believing his club will work its way out of this and fast. However, he conceded some tweaks to the current lines could be coming if things don’t pick up.

One potential move would be swapping Connor and Ehlers. That would reunite the trio of Scheifele, Vilardi and Ehlers which was highly effective for a lengthy stretch, only to get broken up once Connor returned to the lineup last month. Ehlers is currently skating with Perfetti and Monahan.

Same goes for the bottom six, where Niederreiter is skating with Lowry and Mason Appleton, and a new-look fourth line of Iafallo, Barron and Vlad Namestnikov had a solid first showing on Tuesday.

As for additional depth, the Jets currently have Rasmus Kupari and Dominic Toninato as extra forwards, while David Gustafsson is currently on injured reserve but nearing a return. A roster move would have to be made in order to activate him.

The Jets got some good news on Wednesday as Axel Jonsson-Fjallby cleared waivers. The speedy 25-year-old Swede, who had five points (two goals, three assists) in 26 games with the Jets this year, will now join the Manitoba Moose to bide his time as potential injury insurance for the big club.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

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