Jets rest, recover and regroup ahead of Sin City showdown

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This article was published 28/11/2024 (308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAS VEGAS — The Winnipeg Jets haven’t had time to practice much of anything lately, unless you’re counting how to efficiently check in and out of a hotel and get on and off a charter flight as quickly as possible.

So Thursday’s 45-minute American Thanksgiving twirl at T-Mobile Arena — their first non game-day skate in eight long days — was a welcome development for a road-weary club.

“Coming off a loss like we had (Wednesday) night, it was important to keep the guys together, get them back out (on the ice) and regroup them,” said assistant coach Dean Chynoweth. “We’ve got to take what we can from that game and then we’ve got to move forward.”

Winnipeg had one of its roughest outings of the year against the Los Angeles Kings, mustering a season-low 14 shots on goal and losing 4-1. Gabe Vilardi’s power-play tally was the only offence on the night.

“We didn’t feel we had our best game — or anything close to it,” said defenceman Josh Morrissey, who stayed out for some extra individual work Thursday.

“We’re in that grinding part of the road trip. It would be nice to come out with two great games, play the way we feel our identity is as Winnipeg Jets these next two games.”

It doesn’t get any easier, as the Jets will face the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday in a battle of first place clubs from the Central and Pacific Divisions. After that, it’s a date with the always dangerous Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon before finally heading home.

“We’d love to come out with two wins and make it a pretty successful road trip,” said Morrissey. “But no matter what, we just want to see our identity back these next two games for as close to 60 minutes as possible, and just be that team that we know we are.”

Overall, the Jets still sit on top of the NHL standings at 18-5-0, but they are just a pedestrian 4-4-0 in the last eight games. Seven of those have been played on the road.

“Seeing the video and the tape from (Wednesday) night, there were areas of our game we weren’t sharp with,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry.

“When we’re not at our best in those areas, the offence — we don’t generate a lot of opportunities — and we spend a lot of time defending. It was pretty cut and dry the message from (coach Scott Arniel) on what we need to improve upon. I think everyone recognizes that’s not how we expect to play and not the standard we’ve set for ourselves this year.”

Lowry said having some time to focus on the fundamentals — which can inevitably start to slip during a seemingly non-stop barrage of games and travel — is pivotal.

“The practice was more about getting the feet and the hands moving again. Obviously it’s a quick turn around (Friday) with an earlier evening game, so no morning skate,” he said.

“So just rest, recover, do everything you can so you have your legs and you’re mentally sharp, and you can make the right decisions out there that ultimately we didn’t do (Wednesday) night.”

When the Jets are at their best, they come at opponents in unrelenting waves. Against the Kings, they barely caused a trickle in the offensive zone.

“It’s a tough league, so you need everybody. You can’t have guys that take nights off. And you need the other guys to pick them up and drag them along,” said Chynoweth.

“That was not our best hockey, by any means. Now we’ve got the back end of this road trip, with two extremely tough teams.”

The Jets have typically followed up a sub-standard outing with a solid one, so all eyes will be on them Friday to see if that holds true once again.

“So far this season, we have (responded). And this is another one of those moments,” said Chynoweth.

“You go through a season, when you have an 82-game schedule, and you’re going to have those games and then, it’s (about) how you respond. It’s the next game, it’s the next shift, it’s after a goal and you’ve got to be able to put yourself in the position to have success in those.”

Centre Vladislav Namestnikov was absent from Thursday’s skate for what the team described as maintenance, with David Gustafsson — a healthy scratch in 22 of 23 games this year — taking his spot in line rushes between Cole Perfetti and Nikolaj Ehlers.

Vegas is coming off a 2-1 shootout loss on Wednesday in Colorado. They are led by star centre Jack Eichel, who sits fourth in NHL scoring with 34 points (8G, 26A).

“When I look at their team, they’re built a lot like us. They have tremendous depth and they get contributions up and down their line-up, a lot of guys chipping in and off to great starts,” said Lowry.

“They have a real deep back end, they make it tough to get to the front of the net, their D block a ton of shots. They have some great goalies back there. Like every game this road trip, it’s felt like, we’re playing a great team and we’re going to need to be at our best in order to find some success here.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg